The Promise
by Anotherjaneway
Summary: What matters most is what everybody wants. Johnny Gage learns the power of a promise to Roy when a water tower collapse traps them both underwater.


This is a text version of the original still airing imaged, music soundtracked story.

Emergency Theater Live, Episode Eight

8. The Promise Season One- Episode 8 Short summary-  
What matters most is what everybody wants. Johnny Gage learns the power of a promise to Roy when a water tower collapse traps them both underwater.

****WARNING**** The long summary to come is very story spoiling and will take away plot surprises if you read it now before reading the longer story below it.

Decide now if you want to read this episode's detailed summary before doing so.

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Long Summary-  
Johnny discovers Roy hiding a chest cold and treats him around Cap at the station. Roy tries to hide his wife's third pregnancy.  
The gang answers a truck crash hazardous materials call involving freon and a search for a missing van of teenagers. A water tower falls on Roy and Johnny trapping them underwater. An arrested girl Gage finds and abandons on scene for safety reasons turns out to be Dr. Morton's sister. Roy finds the wife and daughter of Johnny's deceased best friend in the heart of the disaster. Gage and Roy make a pact to watch out for each other in a solemn promise. Johnny learns Morton is pursuing a lawsuit for malpractice over his familial loss. Engine 51 responds to a stabbing only to find Roy's wife in jeopardy.  
Craig Brice responds to assist medically in his station's squad.  
Gage writes a resignation letter and the gang goes through heroics to rescue it from the post office network when he changes his mind.

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The Story Unfolds...

Season One, Episode Eight.. The Promise Debut Launch: 15 May 2003.

From : "Roxy Dee" Subject : Working Like a Dog.. Date : Thu, 22 May 2003 23:00:35 +0000 It was nine o'clock.

Johnny Gage flew into the locker room whistling up a storm. He was happy. He saw his partner, still carefully unfolding his uniform socks like he usually did each morning. He was sitting on the bench with his back to him and hadn't yet noticed Johnny's arrival.

Gage he couldn't resist playing shave and a haircut over Roy's upper back and ribcage with a few well placed finger drums in areas that sounded off musically.  
On the last two notes of 'six pence,' Roy's chest echoes sounded off pitch sour and they made the blond haired paramedic cough in response. Johnny frowned.  
"Ooo, Roy. You still got that bad cold? You sound covered in your left lung, lower quadrant."

Roy just looked up and rolled his eyes. "It's not pneumonia, just a little smoke inhalation from that fire two days ago. You know as well as I do that I've been cleared for duty. And it's not a bad cold. Bad colds on me always hit me in the sinuses, not my chest. You don't need to paramedic me to death over it. I always know how I'm doing by how I feel. And besides I sound a little bubbly, Dr. Early tells me, because I'm a fireman." he grinned.

"Not like this.." Johnny said, thumping over Roy's back once again over the tattle tailing area with more raps. He dropped his hands into a tickling mode,  
attacking his partner's waist on both sides. That made Roy cough liquidly when he laughed as he shifted ticklishly away to avoid him. It soon set off a jag that got fairly violent. "Uh, huh.. Not sitting in your chest, eh?"  
Gage said challengingly with his hands angled on his hips. "I'll just bet this is bronchitis setting in. I can almost hear the precursors of rales from here, even bare eared."

"So now you're my self appointed doctor, too?"  
Roy smirked, spitting up some phlegm into a tissue that he produced out of his shirt pocket. He balled it up and threw it away into a waste bucket nearby.

"No, I'm not your doctor. Just being a lookout." he said seriously, still thinking about what he had found on his friend.

"Yeah, well. I'll do anything to stop you from attacking me with your trademark tickle assessment. You know I hate that. Took forever to get the kids to stop doing it and something tells me you'll be even harder to train to break ya of the habit." He said frankly,  
tying his shoes neatly. "I can't miss another day of work since I got major bills to pay. Joanne's amniocentesis tests alone were three hundred forty dollars. Tell you what, I'll work some O2 off the resuscitator before breakfast until the congestion eases to where you want it. Will that make you feel better?" he grinned in good natured compliance.

John clapped his hands in celebrative success.  
"Sure would, Pally. Don't wanna have to report ya to Cap trying to sneak to work early, still afflicted with water lung. Just as long as I can follow up afterwards with a stethoscope for a listening or two." he added, putting on a winning smile when Roy rolled his eyes at the added black mail. "We can sneak the apparatus into the bunk room so Cap won't hear you using it. I'll tell him you... " Johnny said hunting for an excuse.  
"...cut yourself shaving or something."

Roy chuckled. "That explains why I'll be late for breakfast. What's your excuse?"

"Me? " Johnny gestured expansively. "Well, you know how I always break my shoelaces. I do believe I broke both of them this morning, one right after the other for trying to dress too fast yet again." he lied.

Roy got up from the bench as he threw on his shirt and left through the door to go make his bunk up for the day. "Sounds good."

"Don't tuck your uniform in until we're through."  
Johnny shouted after him. "I'll be right there!"

"Yes, mother.." DeSoto teased as he walked past Chet, who was working out with barbells in front of the engine on a mat.

Kelly stopped when he overheard Johnny's comment.  
Then he grinned when he figured it out. "Another smoky chest cover up?"

"Must be to Johnny. I feel fine." Roy complained.  
"So I'll play along. Don't want his sticking like a tick syndrome to last all day."

"Yeah, know what you mean. I feel sorry for all the victims you guys treat in the field. They have to put up with Gage for the duration, when they're not feeling too hot to boot." Chet puffed, beginning another set of arm lifts from his stomach to his chin.

Roy smirked in quiet amusement at Kelly's unique view of paramedics. "They seem to get better faster if I let him be the primary assessor. Why else do you think I'm always starting the IV's?"

Chet just shuddered. "Remind me to never get hurt or sick when Gage's on duty, ok? That scenario's just too unpleasant to even contemplate." he kidded.

"Ditto.." Roy said moving into the sleeping room. "It's gonna take me all day to convince him that I'm not infectious here." his voice admitted, wafting out of the doors before they closed off his echoing reply.

Gage immediately stopped whistling as he entered the vehicle bay and he tip toed to the squad's side compartment to open it. Then he reached inside after seeing the coast was clear. He noticed Chet working out nearby, breathing heavily with effort under the barbells in a difficult butterfly exercise.  
"Kelly, you're blind for thirty seconds.." he said without preamble.

"As a bat.." Kelly said, straight faced and cooperative. "I'll even deflect Cap if we have to rapid stow it if a call goes out."

Gage double glanced in surprise but said "..'kay.." to instantly cover it. ::How the heck did Chet figure that out so fast..:: he thought.  
Then he shrugged. ::I can live with Kelly being no obstacle for once. Something tells me I'd better take advantage of it:  
"Let me know where they are on cooking,  
would ya?"

"I'll be the cleverest man alive." Chet promised.

Johnny gingerly lifted out the O2 and jammed a burn blanket packet or two against the usually clangy oxygen cylinder so he could wheel it into the bunk room for Roy to use. Another hand, cracked open the trauma kit where it sat in the compartment rack, and he reached in and groped around until he found the balled up stethoscope by feel alone.  
Two seconds later, the squad was resealed up and Gage disappeared into the depths of the bunk room after Roy.

Kelly kept one ear on the kitchen door for sounds of activity. He heard Stoker throw a few strips of bacon on the counter top fryer.  
"My.. that bacon smells good. Gimme six Stoker. I'm really working up an appetite out here.." He shouted to the gang gathered in the kitchen. "So's Johnny and Roy. They'll be right in to butter the toast.."

Johnny winced at Chet's lack of subtleness and cringed. ::Thank goodness, Cap doesn't get scheme sharp until he has his coffee and I'm not smelling any of that brewing yet:  
"Here.. Roy.." he hissed in a whisper, parking the O2 where Roy was leaning over making his bed up with neat hospital corners. "Better hurry.  
Kelly says the bacon's on."

Roy turned and surprised his partner when he had a still snoozing Bonnie draped over his forearm. "Maybe we outta use some of that 02 on her." he joked. "Even bacon's not rousing her outta her sleep this morning. Found her snoring away on my pillow."

"I'm not surprised. She must've chased after hundreds of Kelly's off target soft ball pitches in the yard yesterday while we practiced."  
Johnny chuckled, taking the sleeping Yorkie from Roy so he could begin his self treatment off the mask.

Roy took a pull off the O2, coughing when he felt the cool oxygen work its way down through the raspy tight spots in his left lung. "About time you guys started in. The tournament's next week."

Johnny scoffed and not mildly. "We woulda started sooner if you hadn't changed your mind about joining the team."

Roy sucked in another breathful of oxygen and coughed to force it out again. "You know I couldn't be a part of the games this year. Both kids are entering the little leagues. I've got games of my own to go to."

John reconsidered as he stroked the sleeping Bonnie's head and straightened the red ribbon tied on a lock there. "I see your point. They come first." he said gently. He adjusted Bonnie's head on his arm so her loud snoring eased off into light sighs and he wandered over to the desk to give her a good brushing over with her wire brush. "I might as well get her cared for, too,  
while I can still get away with it." he said.

Roy laughed. "Smart move, doing it now while she's still dead to the world. Didn't she almost take off your finger at the second knuckle last time you tried to brush her?"

Johnny set shushing fingers over his lips as he sat down on Roy's bed to work her over cautiously like a barber with a barely contained powder keg. "Just keep busy over there." Gage whispered. "I'm watching ya closely. Breathe in deeper, you're not getting enough alveolially." he snapped in irritation that was completely faked.

DeSoto complied with drawing in lungfuls so big, that his ribs cracked in protest, just to tease Gage.

Johnny's mock stern expression likewise shattered into a bubbling look of you-got-me back.

Laughing to himself, Roy thought. ::Some day, Junior.. You're going to be an absolutely wonderful father. I'll make sure to give you plenty of contact with the kids so you can hone those skills even more.::

Bonnie remained oblivious to Johnny's ministrations where she lay like a rag doll on her back across the beige bedspread, still snoring softly.

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Mike Stoker barely glanced up from his cooking when another odd breakfast comment from Kelly out in the bay floated in to him. "Man, is he being a little too obvious or what?" he whispered to Marco, who was arranging fruit into a wooden bowl for the table.

"Yeah.." Lopez agreed. "I wonder what Gage and DeSoto are up to."

They both shot glances at Cap, who remained unaware of anything out of the ordinary as he opened the morning mail while he watched the daily morning show on the television set. He cut his finger on the edge of an envelope and cursed until Stoker whistled aloud to get his attention.

Mike tossed the metal envelope opener Hank had left on the table earlier, back over through the air to him.

"Thanks, pal. I'll get a bandaid for this later."  
Captain Stanley continued to pour over the bills while Marco and Stoker kept nervously watching the door for the tardy Roy and Johnny.

-----------------------------------------------------------

"Wait a minute. Wait a 're back a day early because of an amniocentesis bill?" Johnny asked belatedly.

Roy nodded reluctantly. Shy.

"You mean to tell me you two are expecting again and you didn't bother to tell any of us about it?"

Roy pulled away the O2 mask sheepishly. "What's to tell? I-I..I mean, a new baby on the way isn't all that important an event to even share here at work. Especially with this being our third."

"Whatdiya mean not important, Roy? You're forgetting that we all didn't know ya yet when your other two kids were born. Thanks for excluding us from the news,  
buddy. Makes us feel real welcome and chummy here."  
Johnny complained.

Roy played with the resuscitator in his hands. "Sorry.  
Didn't think you, or any of the guys would be interested in family matters."

Johnny scoffed as he put away Bonnie's brush and began the long task of untangling her head ribbon and rubber band to replace them with a brand new red one, all without disturbing her rest. "How can we not be interested in your life, Roy? We know about Marco's sweet little enchilada cooking mother. And Chet's prankster sister and Cap's nagging wife..."

To each, Roy nodded honestly.

But then Gage spoke again. "And and..and you guys even get to hear all about my dates I go on every week."

Roy didn't say out loud what he was thinking.  
::Yeah, we sure do. Intimate details of all fifteen crash and burns logged to date in Johnny's little black book. :: What he actually said out loud was. "Didn't think you wanted to know about things like that. The pregnancy with new baby thing's kinda boring to anyone who's not married."

"So.. What's that got to do with anything? So what if Stoker, Marco, me and Chet are still swinging single. We can still care about our crewmates AND their wives. Geesh. Give us the benefit of a doubt. We're friends, aren't we?"

"I get constantly reminded of that." DeSoto quipped, hefting up the flowing O2 mask he still had in his hands.

"So tell us all about how Joanne and the baby are doing over breakfast when we're through here."  
he suggested.. " or I'm gonna break the good news FOR ya." Gage said, putting on his stethoscope. "Now lean over with your elbows on your knees and fold your T shirt up. I'm gonna listen to ya while you're taking that in some more."

Roy went through the whole rigmorale, breathing when ordered and holding his breath too, as Johnny got aural information of how his left lung was faring under the cleansing onslaught of the O2 treatment.

Another minute went by with an edge of dizzyness setting in from the rich air intake, when Johnny announced. "Ok, you're through. That crackling's gone for now. We'll do this same thing tonight before lights out and maybe post rescue once more if we have to go into a fire today." he said in full medical mode.

"If you say so. Bye.." Roy said, tossing down the mask.  
He scrubbed Bonnie's sleeping head once and made haste for the kitchen and the food that was a becoming a serious siren's call in his nostrils.

"Hey! Aren't you gonna help me clean up here?"  
Johnny protested, indicating Bonnie's hairy brush,  
abandoned old ribbon and the O2 apparatus.

"Nope."

-  
Roy was halfway through emptying his plate when Johnny ambled in distractedly for his own morning meal.

Marco and Stoker immediately began motions of drawing rings around their necks at Gage and looking urgent.

Roy frowned, not immediately catching on and his active chewing slowed.

His crewmates broke off their antics immediately when Cap came over from the rec side of the room to sit down in his customary chair by the station wall phone.

Johnny was retrieving his eggs eagerly from the pan on the stove, so he missed all the warning hints from the rest of the gang. Roy missed them, too, still intent on smothering the hunger pains in his stomach that had been sharpened by his use of the O2.

It was too late when Roy finally noticed what Marco and Stoker and Chet had been frantically hinting about.

Cap didn't even blink when his eyes caught it.  
He glanced down again to fill his empty plate. "Nice stethoscope round your neck there, Johnny. Just be sure to have whoever it is you saw just now, run by Rampart on your next resupply for a doctor's check up to confirm what you ruled in or out."

"Uh," Johnny stammered. He hastily pulled off the tattling device and coiled it up onto the table guiltily.  
"Yessir.."

"And next time. I wanna know about it, too. First,  
before anyone else when you decide to examine someone for signs of trouble."

Johnny nodded, rendered mute with instant remorse.

Roy admitted. "He was looking at me, Cap. Tamped lung. We've just cleared it out with O2."

Johnny and Chet and Marco and Stoker all glared at Roy for blowing their carefully crafted cover.

Cap just kept on chewing. "Glad we got one honest fireman here this morning. Gage you got the can detail later for hiding him from me."

"Aw, Cap.." Roy immediately protested. "It's not his fault. I just couldn't stay home another day without pay. My sick leave was all used up when I got electrocuted a month ago while that trainee was here. If you punish anyone, punish me. It's my fault for not levelling with ya on the phone last night when ya called on how I was doing."

"Ok. You got mop detail. Vehicle AND kitchen floors.  
And the next time you stifle a physical symptom from me or Gage, you'll get a formal reprimand, is that clear?" Cap said.

"Y-Yes sir.." DeSoto nodded, not daring to chew.

"Last thing I need is a weakness in the man power chain I don't know about, Roy. I thought you guys knew well enough to tell me ahead of time whenever someone's not feeling one hundred percent ship shape so I can make plans for safety to cover for ya."

"Sorry, Cap. I was thinking about my paycheck and not my own well being for a bit there."

"Oh... New baby on the way, eh?" Cap said, immediately dropping his disciplinarian air.

All the guys around the table just about choked on their eggs.

"What? Why did ya keep us in the dark about it?"  
"Roy, that's terrific.."  
"Wow.. number three."  
"What do ya want this time? A boy or girl?"

Roy held up defensive hands to those upset by not finding out sooner. "I- I- I just didn't think anyone would be interested,  
that's all, so pipe down and stop looking like I kept a secret from ya. Cap. How did you know we were pregnant here?"

"I did the same hiding symptoms stunt with my captain when I had pregnancy check up bills to pay too. Only I tried to hide a sore shoulder and not a phlegmy chest. How IS he doing, Gage? Give it to me straight."  
Hank said, glaring at Johnny, piercingly changing the subject.

"Just fine, Cap." Johnny mewed. "Now.."  
he glared at Roy.

DeSoto threw up his hands. "Glad we're so chummy. I'm fine. Joanne's fine. Baby number three's fine. So can we get back to eating now that the hard talk and the small talk's over? I'm starving here."

Cap's eyebrows rose in amusement.  
"Don't let me stop ya.."

Arff! barked Bonnie as she arrowed into the kitchen after the scent of bacon.

Cap noticed her new hairdo. "Ohmyg*d. Gage.  
Pigtails? She looks like one of the Dale Singers from Hee Haw.."

"Well... I had to make my move while she was still out. I was rushing a little.  
Had to watch her and Roy, too. You can always try and cut em off while she's eating but I don't think you'll get anything by her now that she's conscious. Heh."

"I didn't need watching.." Roy complained.

"Yes you did.." Cap and Gage said together.  
They both eyeballed each other and Johnny cleared his throat uncomfortably, despite of the fact that Cap's and his thoughts about Roy's health status being identical.

Right then, full response tones rippled out of the overhead speaker.

"Saved by the bell.." Gage mumbled,  
heading for the door. He was jogging for the garage full tilt when Bonnie barked to remind him to pick up something he had forgotten.

Johnny skidded back to his seat long enough to grab an armful of fruit to hand out to the guys and his bundled stethoscope.

Cap's authoritative voice rang out.  
"Roy, if this is a fire call, you're on the engine pumps. Stoker'll take your place until you're needed with any medical emergencies."

DeSoto sighed and just nodded.  
But his humor was intact. "Does this mean I'll get the engineer's rate of pay?"

"Funny man.." Hank hollered back from the alcove as he wrote down the response call's address and type. "I'll see what I can swing for you.."

The gang fell silent as they geared up into turncoats and piled into the engine and squad for the roll out as Sam outlined details of the current soon to be reality run.

## Station 14, Battalion 9, Station 8, Station 51.  
Foam Truck 127, Battalion 14. Truck overturn and structure collapse. Pacific Coast Highway and Ventura Freeway. PCH and Ventura Freeway.  
Mile Marker 16. FD on scene reports freon is involved. Timeout 09:23.##

"Oh, great.." Cap groaned sarcastically when he heard what chemical had been spilled. The run would be a major nightmare.

"Station 51, KMG 365.." Hank acknowledged on the radio before hanging it up again onto its spigot. "Ok, gang. You heard the man. Let's roll. Get ready to gear up full SCBA and chem suits. No doubt Haz Mat's gonna be meeting us there."

He caught one of the oranges Gage threw at him to eat on the way and three more for Chet, Stoker and Lopez. He began peeling Mike's to give to him piece by piece while he drove so none of them would have to go tackle a major rescue while hungry.

---------------------------------------------------------

When Station 51 arrived on scene, their jaws literally slacked opened. They couldn't believe what their eyes were telling them.

One look explained it all. A huge storage tower, toppled from a roadside construction site had landed on top of the freeway.

One of the worst motorist reactions Cap and the gang could see had been from a semi driver, whose rig skidded forty five to the right angle and had impacted the concrete viaduct crossing over the PCH.

That bridge was now partially collapsed on top of the tower and truck. Luckily, only three cars were involved, but many many construction personnel were either DOA or only slightly injured.

It looked like a triage area was only just starting. Hank spied Batallion 14, set up a safe distance away from the chemical smoking collapse scene. He was uncharacteristically in full SCBA and suit gear carrying a plastic wrapped HT in one hand. He was issuing commands from his car's mic in the other over the loud horn and radio frequency to all the arriving units.

##Station 51. Approach upwind to the north side. Use the right most emergency lane.  
CHP reports it's been cleared of fatalities. A construction site manager is claiming they have one of their men missing. See if you can locate that victim, then assist Truck 127 in laying down a protective foam over that semitrailer. The driver reports it's carrying liquid freon. We're still determining what other chemicals were stored in the tower. Stay clear of all visible spills and keep your air masks on at all times. Move any effected victims one half mile clear before rendering aid. Think of yourselves first. This is a Hazardous Triage Priority Protocol Scene.##

##Station 51, 10-4, Battalion 14.## Hank replied.

Captain Stanley issued secondary commands to his engine crew and squad paramedics. Soon, they were all masked and roped and hose geared, walking cautiously, deep into the frightening grip of a full fledged, highly dangerous disaster scene.

Chet's face was devoid of any light hearted mischief and he was all working firefighter in a way that rivalled Stoker's usual quiet professionalism.

Roy began to wish he had stayed at home with Joanne's late first trimester nausea.

Soon something happened that got Roy and Johnny's and Marco's immediate attention.

A man was.

Photo : Bonnie with a red ribbon.

Photo : Roy and Johnny listen by the ER drugcase.

Photo : A water tower down in a parking lot.

Photo : An overturned semi under a highway bridge.

Photo : Johnny and Roy with tanks on.

From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject : In Deep Date : Mon, 30 Jun 2003 22:00:43 +0400 Tandem post with "John Allen" and "Cassidy Meyers" via email tennis.

Acknowledgements to P. Keiper NREMT for Freon Consult in the Theater Files and Symptomology. .......staggering toward them, from about 50 yards away obviously dazed and confused.

Just as Roy and Johnny started jogging over to the injured man, a call came over the HT.

##Engine 51 to HT 51. Marco, this is Cap. I need you with me.."##

"10-4 Cap, I'm gum on your shoe." Marco replied.

Lopez and the sunlit glow of his yellow bottle disappeared deeper into the tangle of fallen metal struts under the rising debris dust cloud surrounding them.

Johnny looked at Roy, shaking his head, and gave him a look as if to say 'where does he get these expressions?' as they jogged over to the disoriented man.

Roy and Johnny reached the stricken man just in time to each grab an arm to keep him from falling down backwards, as he blacked out.

"Whoa there, we gotcha." Johnny reassured him, shouting through his SCBA and facemask. Roy and Johnny cradled his upper body and head deftly. The two fire fighters exchanged a look in mutual recognition that they had once again been in the right place at just the right time but as quickly, their expressions died away into those of fear.

A nearby high pitched hissing made Gage and DeSoto break out into a sweat. "Let's get him outta here." Roy said urgently.

Johnny gave a head nod of silent agreement and they began moving with the man to a far safer, upwind location. Other firemen joined them from the road in carrying him to a hastily erected triage location as they hurried out of the immediate area.

They neared the squad and the engine and Cap came jogging over to them.

"Johnny, Roy. Where'd you find this man?" Cap inquired with concern, shouting through his air mask.

"He just appeared about a 150 yards back that way." Roy replied, motioning with his head over to the spot where they had seen him first.

"I'll just bet he's our missing construction crewman. Let me know when and if he regains consciousness. He might be able to clear up matters faster than I can." Cap ordered.

"Sure thing, Cap." Roy replied as they laid the man down on a tarp that had been placed on the dirt for them by Marco. Roy proceeded to check the limp man's vitals and breathing status while Johnny went to grab the gear.

Cap clicked on his HT. "Engine 51 to L.A."

##Go ahead 51.##

"On report of a missing construction worker, we have located one male, alive, but unconscious. Please advise construction foreman and get a description so we can verify that we have their man, over." Hank shouted through his SCBA.

## 10-4, Engine 51, we copy your advisement and will transmit description as soon as we have it.##

"Copy L.A." Through somewhat squinted eyes, Captain Hank Stanley surveyed the scene and shook his head. Teams of firefighters waited at the edge of the accident scene while Hazmat crews and trucks swarmed over the tangle of twisted tower and truck, searching for other hot spots and freon sources. He saw one hazmat team gesture quickly for a hose team to wash down a pile of seagreen canisters that had tumbled out of the tipped over semi. Almost immediately he saw a curt double hand signal go out about two fatalities they had located by the truck and Hank felt a thrill of horror shoot through him even though he couldn't see anything from where he stood. "What a mess." he expressed with noted dismay and a hint of frustration..

Roy and Johnny were busy assessing the fallen man thought to be their missing worker.

"Johnny, Roy? How is our mystery man doing?" Cap asked, looking away from the involved overpass and viaduct and back towards his men.

Just then the man on the tarp began to regain consciousness where he lay on his side.

"Sir, can you hear me?" Johnny asked as he caught the man's head in his gloves as he groggily rolled over onto his back.

The man coughed and gasped for air as he awoke. "Y-" *cough* "Yes." replied the man. "Wh-?" he frowned at the sight of fully masked firemen kneeling over him.

Roy spoke up. "Do you remember what happened to you? "

"uhh-hg.." their victim moaned.

"Sir, we need to know if anyone else was with you. Where were you? We've a site boss looking for a lost employee." Johnny said, leaning over into the man's face, holding his shoulders down so he couldn't rise.

"And we have to find him A.S.A.P." DeSoto added.

Something of Roy's urgency communicated to the man and he spoke again, but in a slow slur. "I-I was standing over by the water tower, over there." the man said confusedly in his half out state.

Johnny grabbed an O2 mask from a resuscitator tank a backup fireman in a hazmat suit had left by them only moments ago. He strung it, and set it around the man's head. "Sir, this oxygen'll help you out a lot. Just try to breathe this in evenly. Not too fast."

The distressed man nodded, gripping the mask eagerly in trembling fingers and he struggled to breathe calmly.

Gage shook his head and mumbled to himself. "Come on, wake up." Johnny looked up at Roy and tried a different way to get their badly needed information. "Sir, we know you're still groggy but we have to find out more about what happened around you. Others' safety may depend on it. What were you doing when the accident happened?"

Still lying on his back, the man pointed wearily toward the place where Johnny and Roy had first seen him appear. But he didn't speak. He began to sag into a stupor.

Gage grabbed a fold of skin on the man's neck and pinched firmly. "Hey,...Sir, were there any other people near you when the tower fell?" asked Johnny loudly.

The pain roused the man. "No. *Cough* I was alone. By a construction trailer?" he puzzled, his memory proving unclear.

Roy set a glove on the man's shoulder. "Ok, just try to relax. We're paramedics with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. We're gonna check you out to make sure you're ok, all right?"

The oxygen was doing its job and the man was into better color and mental clarity. This time, the nod of understanding came sooner.

Roy began. "Sir, do you still feel light headed or dizzy?" Johnny asked.

The bigger, heavily dusted man coughed. "Yeah, a little. It was hard to breathe for a few minutes there. That gas was really strong."

"Freon gas?" Johnny asked.

The gasping man nodded. "Don't know what it's called. Just, whatever they were hauling on that truck!" he said, getting slightly agitated.

"Easy.." Johnny said through his mask. "It's ok, you're away from there. Just take it easy."

The man visibly fought being body uncomfortable and with effort, began to quell his chemical induced anger. Soon, he cooperated with his two rescuers even though it remained difficult for him to focus. "Ugghh... smelled like ether. Nasty stuff." replied their victim and he began to shiver.

Gage said. "Ok, we'll get you cleaned off and warmed up real soon. Just hang on. I'm gonna get a blood pressure off your arm here, all right?"

The restless man nodded and stopped thrashing his limbs. "Fine. Just hurry up, mister. I feel like crap."

Roy picked up the biophone and shouted loud enough to be heard through his breathing apparatus. "Rampart, this is Squad 51."

##This is Rampart. Go ahead 51.## replied Kelly Brackett.

"Rampart, we have a conscious male, age 35-40. He's recently regained consciousness on his own after heavy exposure to confirmed freon gas. He's experiencing some light headedness and dizziness.

##What are his vitals, 51?## Dr. Brackett asked. A tinge of worry slipped into his voice when he recognized his paramedic speaking through full containment gear.

Roy replied as Johnny called them out to him in relay. "Vitals are: BP 98 palpated. Respirations are 22 and shallow. Pulse is 100 and slightly irregular."

Back at the base station, Dr. Brackett finished taking the information down into his notes. ##Okay, 51. Put him on 15 liters O2 as near to 100% as you can if you haven't already and remove any contaminated clothing for a thorough washdown. But before he gets wet, send us a strip. I want to be sure that those cardiac arrythmias are from the freon and not from a newly occuring M.I. Get a detailed medical history. Note any preexisting cardiac or pulmonary disease. Positive findings on those will change my treatment plan. Roy, under no circumstances, are you to use epinephrine on him or any other freon exposed victims at your scene no matter what the cardiac situation. Freon's a myocardial irritant and any adrenaline type compound entered into their tissues will have the ability to kill them in short order. If that kind of situation arises, I'll advise other parasympathetics for your use. Start an IV of normal saline, maintain a good airway and continue a close monitoring of his vital signs. Treat for that developing shock. Also, be sure to check him thoroughly for signs of frostbite. Treat any you find later en route, after you've prepared him for transport. ##

"10-4 Rampart, 100% O2 with a full chemical washdown. Starting an IV NS. Please stand by for his EKG. " he nodded at Chet, who had replaced Marco to aid Johnny and Roy in their patient care. Kelly began cutting away the man's clothes for leads placement. Soon all was ready and Roy got Chet's all set nod about the monitor. "This will be on lead two, Rampart." Roy shouted. We'll inform you of any pertinent medical history. 10-4, Rampart, on the epinephrine ban, we'll treat for shock and do a frost bite check. Understood that further treatment is en route." Roy parroted.

Dr. Brackett sighed. ##51, do you know how many casualties you have at your location?##

"Not yet, doc. The area's still in chaos. But our numbers could be substantial. Looks like a filled five story water tower collapsed on an occupied construction site and parking lot as well as on top of part of the northbound freeway system here." Roy replied.

Dr. Brackett grimaced and sighed. ##10-4, 51.## Kel finished his studying the down man's EKG strip and he turned off the machine. ##51, I'm reading nominal elevations in his ST segments. Looks like the 02 is easing his abnormal rhythm. I am confirming a lack of medical cardiac involvement. Looks like this is just the gas doing a number on him. Also, from here on out. During this crisis, you have my permission to treat first and ask questions later. This goes for all medical situations. Use the protocol you know for guidelines. I'll take full responsibility for your actions. Our radio communications will most likely get unreliable as operations progress over there..##

"10-4. Rampart." Roy answered. Both he and Johnny began to relax as the man's potential coding risk was ruled out as being very unlikely.

"Ok, Kelly, start the washdown." Gage shouted to him and the other firemen gathered around him.

Chet began playing a brisk hose over the man's body and skin as others in waterproof suits rolled him from side to side to get full coverage.

Hank kicked a sandbag back into line as the run off from the man channeled down in a made path to the base of a broad sand pile at the edge of the construction site. ::The freon will soak into this sand and Hazmat'll be able to barrel it and haul it away.::

Gage kept up reassurances to his patient as he guarded the man's airway with a firm hold over his O2 mask and his face. The man had Johnny's gloves in a death's grip. "I know it's cold. Almost through. We've got to get any trace of that gas off your skin. Stick through ten minutes more of this and I promise you a pile of heated blankets once we're in the ambulance." he grinned cockeyed through his airmask.

The man tried to laugh but consciousness fled and his eyes rolled up into his head.

"Hold it! Hold it.." Gage told Kelly. He made sure the man was still breathing and slipped in an oral airway before switching the 02 mask for a demand valve. He began forcing oxygen into the man's tired lungs. "Ok, keep going, I got him secured."

Chet continued the man's hose bath.

Soon, the man was placed in a specially plastic lined and rigged Mayfair for his trip to Rampart.

Johnny handed off the hanging IV and gave his verbal notes to the pair of paramedics inside who weren't wearing SCBA, being careful not to get the water running off his clothes onto the floor of the ambulance. "Careful, I'm contaminated with freon here." he told them. "Brackett wants to know of any COPD or cardiac history if he wakes up. Also, sweep for frostbite and treat. We found no injuries."

Nearby, the air masked Cap spoke to the firefighter paramedics assigned to take over the man's care. "We've a tipped tanker that's burning over there so anticipate phosgene and hydrogen fluoride traces, too, on him." he informed, throwing a head at the unconscious man being carefully assistance ventilated by an ambulance attendant. "And get his name and occupation to me if you can. We've a missing man out here."

"Right, captain.." replied the senior paramedic. "We'll broadband when we get in if he comes to."

Gage closed the doors of the Mayfair and slapped it twice before backing away.

As it departed, two teams of firefighters washed it down with hoses as it drove slowly out of the disaster area and onto the freeway. CHP motorcycles escorted ahead of it showing the traffic cleared route to the hospital through the maze of abandoned vehicles angled everywhere.

Lopez jogged over from the Battalion Chief's car over to Hank, pausing first before entering the ambulance landing area to be briefly hosed down by perimeter hazmat firefighter crews. "Cap, I got our orders, just like you asked me to do. Chief wants us to enter ground zero of the water tower to start a victim search. The construction boss just told us a van filled with teens was joyriding in the back of his company lot just before the semi hit the tower. No one has seen any of them or the van since."

"What does the van look like?" Hank asked, wiping water spray off his mask with a glove. "We might as well start there."

"Uh,..." Lopez hesitated.

"Well..?" Cap thundered.

Marco peeped. "Have you ever watched Scooby Doo, Cap? The boss says it looks like that. Sort of purply technicolored."

"Wonderful.. " Hank said sarcastically. "Gage. DeSoto. You heard him. Pack up your gear again and go. You're first in after the hazmat team checks out that end of the scene."

"Right.." Gage said. "Chet, help me pack up this EKG monitor. Run it to us as soon as we're outta there with somebody."

"You got it."

Cap and Kelly started to turn back to the staging area when Roy stopped Hank. "Cap, when Johnny and I were in there. We heard some leaking gas. Sounded like a portable tank going off."

"Where?" Cap said, whirling around to face the heart of the collapsed tower.

"By a red pickup and a pile of pallets, Cap. I heard it, too. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the truck was unloading its payload AT the construction site when the water tower fell. The tanks I think I saw were already piled neatly outside the truck. They looked stacked about three or four rows high and nine deep."

"Really.." Cap breathed in significance. "Chief'll love hearing this. Five times over the National Federal Standard trucking through the heart of L.A. judging from the number of tanks you're telling me about. Somebody's heads are gonna roll. But not from any resulting explosions from them that's for sure." and he hefted his HT to his faceplate. "This is Engine 51 to all units. A paramedic has reported leaking freon from a tank cache in the immediate vicinity of ground zero next to a red pickup truck. Watch yourselves."

Immediately, Hazmat responded. ##HazMat Two to Engine 51.##

"Go ahead Hazmat.." Hank answered via radio.

##We've found the point source and more in a box car. We are cooling down with foam and fan spray. Your rescue men are clear to re enter the area.##

"That was fast.." Chet remarked, wrapping the EKG leads back into the case rapidly.

"They'd better be." Cap said. "There's too great a density of civilians and department personnel to monkey around with. Gage. DeSoto. Get going. Keep on your radios. Marco, Kelly. Go with them. If this van of kids was full we're gonna need a lot of man power. I'll have a team run with your gear soon as you spot anything. Carrying any will just slow you down."

"Right, Cap." came everyone's reply.

Johnny and Roy felt the hot sun on their backs and the wet coolness of the covering spray being blown on the wind from Hazmat's water curtains and shuddered as they retraced their steps from the victim decontamination area and back into the disaster zone.

Gage whistled low under his breath as he spotted car after car that the water tower had levelled as it fell flat. He picked up a wooden board and banged three times on the hollow, still intact massive drum of the water tower. It answered back, still liquidy hollow. "Water's still in there, Roy. If that gives way..."

"I know.. Just keep lookin.." DeSoto said through tight teeth.

The four firemen rounded a turn after pushing aside metal debris and tangles of construction wire.

They found where Hazmat was containing the leak Roy and Johnny had heard getting their first victim out. The foam was thigh deep and the water curtain thick over a box car full of powdered aluminum labels. "Oh, great.." Gage groaned. "Freon only reacts with metals of certain types and what do we get? A whole box car full of em.."

"Think positive thoughts, partner.." Roy grinned.

"Tryin to." Gage replied.

Then there was a shout from Kelly just ahead. A gust of wind rose in a dust cloud making things hard to see. "On the double. Found one..!" Chet shouted.

Marco, Johnny and Roy rushed forward to see Kelly kneeling over an asphyxiated girl on the ground whose hands were locked tightly over her own blue throat.

Gage snapped his radio receiver over his mask and shouted. "Any available recovery team. We need a resuscitator to our 10-20. Now! Watch for my vertical hose spray!" and he snatched up a standby charged hose and shot a stream up over the debris dust cloud to mark their location.

Short moments later. ##We see you. There in less than one.## came a Hazmat reply.

Behind them, was the van of teenagers they had been seeking. It was partially buried by tower beams with a crushed roof. Looming overhead was the bulk of the unruptured ten thousand gallon water tower reservoir hanging right over the van and the whole mess was still creaking as its tremendous weight still crushed down closer to the ground. The moans grew louder when the van's flimsy roof gave way another six inches under its burden.

Kelly, Marco and Roy knelt helplessly unable to do anything for the apneic girl with their SCBA masks still strapped to their faces.

Chet started to take his off to do something active about that but Roy stopped him. "No! Your safety's first. We're downwind of those tanks and the burning truck. Wait. She's still got a carotid. We've got time."

Marco ran the rest of the way to his gangmates and slammed to his knees at the top of the girl's head. "Roy?" He didn't like the fact that Roy and Johnny didn't yet have their gear nor the darkening cyanotic color forming over the young teen's features.

"She's gotta pulse, Lopez." Roy said calmly tense.

"Then she's only just resp arrested."

"Looks like." DeSoto said, opening her airway further using a jaw thrust in prep for the airway and O2 that was on its way.

Pounding footsteps and clattering O2 metal greeted them from the sunlit gloom.

"Over here!" Gage said to a Hazmat man with the medical gear, dropping his hose and shutting it off.

In no time, they had their resuscitator.

Gage saw Kelly begin to use it around Roy's airway hold and he subconsciously held his breath until he saw the girl's chest rise. Once and again. A few ventilations later and the ominous cyanosis began to retreat. "Chet? She fighting you?"

"Not at all."

Gage reached into the small jumppack the firefighter had given him for an esophageal airway and a tube of lubricant. ::Thanks, doc, for the pre go ahead. We owe you one.::

As he waited for Kelly to hyperventilate the girl in prep for his airway insertion, John felt a sudden chill of recognition as the resuscitator mask was lifted off her face. A sudden memory flooded his mind's eye of a golden laughing smile and a baby gurgling happily on her mother's lap.

"Oh, my g*d. I know this girl." Johnny blurted out to the others waiting for him to move.. "She's..............."

-------------------------------------------

Photo: A chemical victim being lowered to a tarp by Hazmat rescuers.

Photo: Johnny and Roy by engine in full SCBA gear.

Photo: Hazmat using foam and water curtains on a box car.

Photo: A downed water tower in a construction parking lot.

Photo: Masked firemen surrounding an asphixiated girl.

Photo: Johnny and Roy in masks in dusty gloom.

*  
From : "Champagne Scott" Subject : Under the Shadow.. Date : Sun, 07 Sep 2003 20:36:27 -0500 ...Drew's wife...! This is Kelsey...." he whispered in shock.

"What?!" Chet shouted through his mask.  
"You'd better concentrate on finishing up there, pal. Her clock's ticking down. My last vent on her was fifteen seconds ago.  
sixteen... seventeen..."

"Oh, ...right. ... uh..Roy?" Johnny asked numbly looking to share his horrifying news.  
But his air masked partner was listening to something being said over the HT by Cap and he didn't hear Johnny speak.

Numb with reaction, on autopilot, Gage gel'd up the EOA and threaded it down the unconscious woman's throat. He nodded to Chet to give her a couple of shots then remembered belatedly that he couldn't use a stethoscope to verify his placement of the tube. ::Gonna just haveta watch for distention..:: he thought. ::Ohmyg*d, :: his mind shouted in his head ::This is Kelsey!::

Unbidden, came a memory of Drew, his friend the police officer, lying shattered on the margin of the freeway under his hands, and the crackling hissing ghost of a broken frequency coming from the biophone. Johnny shook his head. ::That was two years ago. Knock it off, man!  
Gotta concentrate. It's SHE who needs me now.::

The sweaty steam on Johnny's face mask covered his shocked expression and only Chet noticed the slightest hesitation as Gage shakily followed up his intubation by reconnecting the demand valve to the EOA that he was holding stable in his glove from where it jutted from her teeth.

Chet's voice sounded as if from a distance through the roaring in Johnny's ears.  
"Giving her four. Johnny let me know how it feels." Kelly said, thumbing his first breath into the woman's lungs carefully. "Her color's still good." he said peeling back her lips to view her gums.

"Ok, ready.." Johnny felt his lips say.  
Gage placed gloves over her chest and abdomen trying to feel for telltale gurgling under one and chest rise under the other.  
He counted three more rises under his right one as he monitored her. He found he couldn't find his voice to tell Chet things were fine.

Cap's voice came over the HT, echoing eerily around the fallen tower's spidery debris field and the shouts coming from the hazmat team as they struggled to seal off the freon leaks they had located near the area where Johnny, Chet and Roy were working on the girl.  
Engine 116, lay in from the hydrant on mile marker 117 and hit that rising gas vapor in a covering fan from the south. Engine 45, stage from the cleared part of the freeway and hit the box car from the west. Squad 45, do a primary search of the involved automobiles to the west of this location and make sure they've been evacuated.

Truck 127. Set up to the east two hundred yards away from the water tower. You re gonna assist my men in attacking car fires in the area. Hank crammed the HT back into his pocket, barely waiting for any acknowledgments.

He looked up, spotting a masked and chem suited Marco waving at him. Hank turned toward his engineer, motioning vigorously. Charge up a new line over Johnny Roy and Chet, Mike! They're working on a victim! Lopez? What's up?"

"Cap, I think I spotted the van that construction boss told us about. It's directly under the water tower's drum about sixty meters from here. Looks like things are already settling around it."

"What?! There's no way a flimsy van'll keep its structural integrity under that much weight pressing down onto it. Most of the water's still inside of there.." Hank muttered. His furlative in-command glance turned into one of deep worry through his mask as he eyeballed Chet and the two paramedics working to ventilate the girl. He shouted, realizing that a ton of of help would be needed to emergency evac everyone from the van Lopez had found. "Kelly.. Front and center. Gage can take over for you.. We're gonna need a lot of manpower to get those kids out of the van."

"Right, Cap.." Kelly rose and Gage took his place. "It's all good first time, Johnny. They're going in nice and smooth.." he said of his quickened ventilations he was giving the woman. "Here.. Take this. Cap wants me for somethin.." Chet, in his chem suit and mask, readjusted the heavy weight of his air bottle under it, with a groan. "I'll be right back...." he promised.

Johnny barely looked up at Chet as he took over the demand valve. He didn't even see the curly haired fireman leave to join up with the others at Cap's side.

Roy just then noticed how quiet his partner had become. "Johnny..?" He reached out a glove,  
damp from Stoker's nearby spray, and grabbed the arm of Gage's jacket.

"What?" Johnny looked up at him.

"What's the problem..?" DeSoto shouted through his mask.

"Let's get her into the stokes.  
We can take her with us. She's breathing on her own." he said, rising and leaving the oxygen valve connected to Kelsey's airway.  
"Bellingham can take over her care for us.  
I see him by Kelly and the van."

Roy turned, from gathering up Kelsey's torso and upper body into his arms craning over his shoulder to see where Johnny was pointing.  
"Ok,.. I got her shoulders.."

Gage grabbed her legs and they set her awkwardly into the metal stokes a passing fireman had left for them. Gasping, the two paramedics lifted their burden and walked,  
straight as they could, through tangles of steel towards Cap and the new focus of EMS personnel knotting under the shadow of the water tower's looming bulk. He could just make out the sounds of creaking metal as sinking tonnage slowly crushed all the vehicles trapped under the drum.

Swiftly, Bellingham and Brice intercepted Johnny and Roy and they were suddenly relieved of their burden. Kelsey was lifted from their hands. "We got her.. Go..." Brice said as he placed a hand on her chest to make sure she was still breathing.

Gage spun around in a daze still not recovered from knowing his victim and he watched them start to head for the safety of the yellow zone.

"Johnny?" Roy asked, concerned. "Your air running out?"

Gage grabbed his valve regulator and checked.  
"Nah,... I'm fine.. almost eight minutes left.  
Don't worry about me, I'll tell you about it later.  
Let's go.." He picked up a second resuscitator from the ground and curled it under one arm.

Gage and DeSoto ducked, moving closer towards the van, trying not to pay any attention to the moaning stressed metal sounds filling their ears.

Cap intercepted them. "We've got six victims.  
All of them are pinned by debris except for the driver. We're gonna haveta do some cutting."

Right then, a high shriek of friction torn metal stabbed through Cap's sentence and deep into the bones of their skulls.

"Look out! The tower's giving way!" Kelly shouted.

Everyone under the shadow began to run for the daylight. Only Cap, Kelly and Lopez,  
got out.

The water tower's huge bulk split like an egg and a tongue of frothy flood water began to gush out as it flattened partially to the ground. Roy, Johnny and one other, were swallowed whole under the water filled dome.

Hank scrambled.. barely getting his legs out in time from beneath the folding skin of the tower and he was instantly soaked by frigid water when he was too slow getting out of the way. He hauled Kelly and Lopez to their feet and Hank started a desperate head count including himself. "1, ....2, .....3...."

He saw Bellingham and Brice slowly rising and dripping, to their feet twenty feet away.. Their gloved hands were empty.

::Oh, no..:: Cap thought. "Where's the girl in the stokes?" ::4....5...::

Brice shook the stars from his head and almost took off his air mask. His partner stopped him before he could complete the move and grabbed his shoulders,  
looking at his face through his mask when Craig remained silent and slightly off balance.

Bellingham's gasp said it all. "She must be under there, Captain Stanley.. I don't see her.. Brice got hit in the head and we dropped her."

Cap motioned Kelly and Marco to get Brice out of the area... "And I don't see two of my men.." he replied grimly.

"They're gone, too?" Bellingham blurted out, whirling.

Hank refused to acknowledge the fact that Roy and Johnny could have just been killed along with the woman.  
"I want a team of men with K-12's and axes over here immediately! There's a chance the shell fell AROUND them."

"Under all that water?" Chet shouted in alarm.

Cap cut him off curtly. "Get Brice to safety. Get him hoof it back here with everything you've got.."

"Right, Cap.." Chet and Marco swept up Brice into a seat held carry and moved.

Cap called out the same priority over his HT to the available companies. "Engine 51 to all units. We've trapped victims and firefighters under the tower. I need a full detail scrambled, wearing full protective gear and air bottles. We're on the south side of the tower's drum..."

Men began to run as the massive rescue operation around him shifted shape and form to accomodate. HT activity tripled.

To Cap's horror.. the gushing water around his legs lessened and began to die off as the dome sealed itself tightly to the stained ground. ::Not enough.. Not enough..:: his mind screamed. ::There's still too much water in there. They won't stand a chance if they're not awake enough to tread water:  
The last agonizing screeching sounds of collapse trickled away into eerie silence.

------------------------------------------------------

Photo : Cap in an air bottle.

Photo: Hazmat patient care.

Photo : Drew's wife with girl and Johnny.

Photo : John with a dying police officer Drew.

Photo : Accident water tower down.

Photo : Johnny, Roy on ground fall.

Photo: Brice sets watch in squad.

Photo : Darkness under water.

*  
From :"Roxy Dee" Subject : ~~Red Pool~~ Date : Fri, 26 Sep 2003 19:54:27 +0000 Cap slipped and slid in the newly created ankle deep morass of mud and shards to start a hasty inspection of the water tower dome for any signs of large leaking breaches through which to target a rescue attempt.

He didn't hesitate to rain the metal shell with sharp ringing blows.. "Roy! John! Can you hear me?! *gasp* Hang on.. We're gonna get you out of there ASAP!! " His head whipped around, first right then left, but no other fireman was as yet, near.

He lifted his HT once again and ordered. "Move it everyone! I'm located on the south side, upwind! I'm twenty yards from the site of the second victim's initial location!"

Cap's breaths whistled painfully inside his SCBA mask as he attempted to remain clear headed around a panicking heart which slammed wildly inside of his chest.

He tossed the handy talkie aside when he heard multiple reply backs and didn't care that it skittered out of reach and into the muck at his feet. Numbly, his soaked gloves beat out another regular pattern to the taut hollow dome he hastily stretched out upon. He shouted once more to those trapped underneath.."DeSoto!? Gage?! If you're o.k., respond in any way you can..!"

Cap first freed, then plastered an ear to the tower's skin after eyeballing the prevailing winds for safety. He no longer cared about any possible contamination with the spilled freon. "My men come first." he sobbed aloud, with roiling raw emotions. The professional side of him countered that irrationality with instant support. ::There was enough of a wash down from the dome's spillover to dilute the stuff nearest here.:: it said.

Some small part of Hank Stanley still waited for the telltale burning of sub freezing temperatures to bite into his exposed wrists and neck, as subliming freon searched for a way to call him a liar. But only the hot sun was searing into anything he could still feel that wasn't completely wet.

Hank's relief about not burning himself with any coolant exposure never materialized. A larger part of him was rapidly losing objectivity. "Come on you two..Just one sign. Won't take much to grab a piece of scrap to wail an answer back.." he whispered, fogging up his face plate. "Come on.. start tapping!"

Cap filled some time checking his air tank's regulator. "I've got nine minutes left.." Hank silenced his own adrenaline twitchy mouth and he held in a ragged breath as he willed his body to stillness as he listened.

Seconds stretched into long moments as violated metal talked to itself and its mercilessly settling gravity net.

Chink.. Ping.. Creakkkk -kkk --kkk. k k.. *hisssss*..

Soon, waves of water lapped musically soft inside as the tower reached equilibrium at last in its new horizontal position.

Cap's eye finally found the surface of the trapping pool through a ragged crack. It was staining with a growing red through the clear depths the sun illuminated.

Nothing else clearly identifiable as actively struggling life, gurgled from the pocket of deep water that he could see to reward Cap's vigilance.

Drip..

Drip...

Drip....

Hank's eyes stung sharply. "No..."

----------------------------------------------------

Photo: Cap feeling a door tensely.

Photo: Stoker and Marco frantically hosing down a scene out of view.

Photo: *animated* Dripping blood drop.

Photo: An underground pool that's clear and reddish.

*  
From: "Cory Anda" Subject : Full Circle Date : Sat, 27 Sep 2003 02:30:55 +0000

GAASSPPPPPppp!! *cough!* choked Gage as his head broke the surface of the water inside the van. He had long ago peeled off his air bottle in order to swim up towards what meager light he could see.

"Roy!?" he shouted, treading water and whirling in the frigid darkness. His hasty shout echoed in his ears. He could hear faint pounding from somewhere else but that sound was the farthest thing from his mind at that moment.

The van suddenly shifted as it began to float, its front end partially buoyant from its sudden unexpected immersion under water.

An eerie golden light glowed through the shattered windshield of the van. ::So, there are cracks out there..:: Johnny realized. ::The whole d*mned tower must have come down in around us..:: Gage shook away a lurid bone chilling cold he suddenly felt seeping through his turnout gear.  
::How the h*ll did I get in the van:  
His own sense of orientation drifted away.

A body floated up.  
It was wearing bright blue clothes.

"Roy?!" Johnny said in fright, remembering suddenly who was still missing.

John pushed off the wall of the van to get to the sodden form and he quickly flipped it over to feel for a carotid. He immediately dropped the young african american teenager with a shout of horror.

Half of her features were crushed and so was the top of her head. "Gaghhh..." Johnny blurted out, back treading blindly. The young body of the girl sank out of sight, leaving only a trail of red behind. "I'm not gonna make any progress that way." his teeth chattered, and he froze in place just to listen. The dim pounding continued, but it wasn't vibrating through the chassis of the luckless van. "Outside help?" Johnny guessed.  
"Maybe it's Cap...!"

He was just about to take a breath to reach a leg up to kick out the windshield arching above him when he saw a trail of bubbles coming from a shadow near to the left side of him in the front seat. ::The driver's still alive!:: he realized.

Gage's groping hands found a football jerseyed young man's neck and head as he brought his mouth and nose to the surface of the water.  
He was rewarded with sputtering gasps as the teen quarterback blew out liquid in a spray from his throat and lungs. "Easy.. I got you.."  
Johnny encouraged, keeping the man from sinking underneath the water again as he struggled to breathing wakefulness.

"I didn't mean it.. I didn't mean it.. *cough* They made me do it..." the injured kid mumbled.

Johnny laid the teen's head against his shoulder and immobilized his neck and forehead as best he could against his chest.. "Hey, take it easy now. No one's blaming you for anything. Especially not for a stupid joyride in the parking lot. An accident's an accident... What's your name?"

"B-Bobby..*cough*"

"Can you breathe ok the way you are?"

"What?"

Johnny Gage took that for a yes.  
"Do you hurt anywhere besides that arm..?"  
he said looking down. Gage saw a second 'elbow' bending below the young man's real one on his left arm where it floated in the water.

"I'm hurt? Oh, my g*d.." and the dazed teenager began to thrash around a bit inside Johnny's firm hold.

"Bobby.. Now just calm down!.. I'm feeling nothing seriously wrong with you. Now my name's Johnny Gage and I'm a paramedic with the Los Angeles County Fire Department."

"I crashed the van?"

Johnny spat some of the boy's hair and muddy water from his mouth. "No.. not exactly.. A semi truck hit a water tower near you and then it fell on us. That's where all this water comes in.."

"What?! ! Where's Angie.  
Mark...?! They were all in here with me.  
Steve!! Where are you??"

Gage's head was banged painfully as the young man panicked as he arched his back and he saw stars. He tightened his grip on the teen to keep him still.

Gage knew from the roof sloping into the water that no one else was left alive in the back of the van. "Listen to me!  
Bobby, we'll worry about them later. Now I'm more concerned with getting you taken care of first. And to do that, we both have to keep calm and cool about all this. We might need to conserve the air in here. Now I want you to slow your breathing rate down a bit. It's probably why you're feeling so short of breath right now."

"Ugh.. I'll...t-try..."

"That's it.. Nice and easy. Now, does your neck or back hurt anywhere? I'm holding you like this just in case you do."

"Uhh,.. no. They're ok.. I'm not feeling any p--Ahhh! What's wrong with my arm?"

"I'll be honest with you, Bobby. It's broken. "

"Oh, man.. Coach's gonna l-love this.  
He'll kill me when he finds out I have to miss the rest of the seas-- n"  
he said slipping into shock.

"Bobby? Stay awake. Keep your head up.  
Let me tie this board here on your arm.  
We need to splint this before we go anywhere." Gage used a seatbelt that he cut away from the van's wall using his holster's bowie knife. "I gotta get you into some dry clothes and I also gotta find my partner and another girl who was with us.."

"S-Someone else? Who...who is she?" Bobby struggled. "Please.. I gotta know about my friends."  
Returning pain to his fractured arm silenced the young quarterback and he froze into stillness with a strangled cry. "I feel like I'm gonna puke."

"Easy. Moving around will only make you more nauseated. Her name's Kelsey, and she's doing fine."

"Where is she? I- I don't see her!!" Bobby said, gasping, falling limp, now only half awake.

Johnny felt the change in the boy's posture and heard it in his voice. "Bobby? Stay with me.."

At the same time, a flicker of sunlight and shadow made him look up through the windshield of the van into the sparkling underwater light reflecting there.

Peering through the raining water trails seeping through the spidered glass, he could just make out Roy's legs and shoes kicking at a second water surface six feet above the van with the comforting shape of Kelsey's metal stokes in his arms. Gage could see the green bottle of the resuscitator still nestled in between her legs.  
::He's still got the O2 for her.. Good.:: Johnny sighed in relief. ::I swear, Roy. You got more lives than a cat.:: he grinned. Out loud he said.  
"Kelsey's really fine, Bobby. She's with my partner. Out there. Right now."

He didn't get any reply. ::Bobby?:: Johnny thought to himself. His fingers found the slow thud of a carotid at the big teen's neck and the injured teen's ribcage still rose and fell inside the bearhug Gage had around the young man.  
"So that's where we're going, too." he said quietly to the unconscious boy. Gage waited for the young man to take in a shallow breath of air before he blocked off the man's nose and mouth for the trip out of the van.

Two kicks later, they were free, popping up beside Roy in a flood of bubbles as the rest of the vehicle's trapped air escaped with them.

------------------------------------------------------------

DeSoto didn't even bat an eye.  
"Here's Johnny, Cap. Looks like he's got a victim out."

"Johnny? You all right, pal?" an overjoyed Hank's voice echoed into the hollow chamber, even through his air mask.

"Yeah, Cap. Just hurry it up. Neither of these guys can wait without treatment much longer." Gage coughed as the outside air's freon fumes began to get to him.

"Here.. " Roy said, disconnecting the O2 tubing from Kelsey's EOA. "Give him some and then take a breath of your own. We've been sharing.."

"She still breathing?"

"Yeah, she's just out, that's all. I still can't find any injuries."

Gage improvised a seal using the positive pressure valve's mouth port and the teen boy's under a firm grip where he treaded in the water.  
He delivered two breaths in time with Bobby's inhalations. The teen started to moan as he awoke, partially revived.

Johnny took his own turn on the oxygen valve.  
"Cap, we could use three new air bottles down here!"

"We're cutting a hole through to you now.  
Watch for Stoker's rope. Only expect another demand valve unit to buddy breathe on. It's smaller. This one's got a mask." Cap shouted. "Two minutes more."

Right then, the hiss of O2 that Roy tried to deliver to Kelsey's airway secured lungs, faded away.

Their critical lifeline, had just run out.

Gage quipped. "How long can you hold your breath, Roy?" he asked seriously.

"As long as necessary. If we black out in here, we'll all die of drowning. Here, I've cut away the stoke's straps, all but the one holding her shoulders. Use them to tie you and him to those metal struts here. If we do fall unconscious,  
at least our heads won't go under. I've already rigged hers and mine as well as I can." Roy said, his suggestion breaking off into a paroxysm of choking coughs as freon mist began to invade the flooded tower's air chamber.

Right away, Johnny could hear Roy's prior left lung trouble flaring up in complaint liquidly.

"Great, poison air for your barely healed water lung." Johnny said sarcastically. "Breathe more shallowly, Roy. You're getting off color already."

"*Wheeze* T-That's from the cold.." DeSoto shivered,  
wedging Kelsey's stokes more firmly onto the angle of sheeting he had found to support her weight against the tower wall. "I- I'm fine.. " DeSoto choked. "Worry about your own complexion instead, ok?"

Gage ignored him. "Cap. We need that spare O2 on the double! Roy's getting into trouble here."

Gage startled as his partner's head sagged suddenly and Johnny lunged to catch it as DeSoto half passed out,  
falling lax into his improvised strap harness tied to the tower wall. "Oh no you don't.." Johnny said.  
"Snap out of it, Roy. You're ok.. Now come on.. It's not that stuffy in here." he said, slapping Roy's damp face lightly to rouse him.  
"The freon's hardly noticable yet.."

*Cough* DeSoto reacted weakly. "I...I..."

"What, Roy? You what? Come on. Don't black out on me. I need ya conscious. I can't watch both of these guys on my own." Gage urged tensely. A suffocation jag of gas drifting down, and gave him his own uncomfortable moments of feeling like he was getting no air at all into his lungs.  
"Cap....!" he shouted hoarsely when he had recovered.

"One minute Gage!" Hank promised.

"That's a minute too late, guys. Roy's just went out on me here.." Johnny shouted, tipping Roy's head back to make sure his breathing continued unimpaired. "This sh*t's *gasp* awful. We can't breathe it in for much longer." Gage coughed.

Bobby began to turn blue when he quit trying to breathe fifteen seconds later.

Johnny gave him a breath mouth to mouth and a second one before the teen sucked in some of his own again unaided.

The world began to swim before Gage's eyes.

----------------------------------------------

"Gage.. Grab it!.. Stoker's lowering the tank on a line to ya and the rest of us are K-twelving a side hatch to drain you guys out with the water.." Cap said urgently.

In a stuporous haze, Johnny saw the second resuscitator, tied in a rope hitch, swaying in front of him. But it was as if his arms refused to work.

"Johnny. Grab it and use it on yourself first.."  
Hank's voice shouted through Johnny's ringing ears.  
"I can't reach you so you gotta do it on your own.  
Then get to them! Gage! Do you hear me? Take a shot from the O2 now. That's an order!"

Some deep instinct made the thousands of Johnny's firefighter and paramedic training hours kick in. He reached for the resuscitator mask dangling in front of him and took one. ChuugghhhhhHHH!

Instantly clarity flooded back. Johnny blinked up into the sun. "Cap?"

"Get to Bobby. He's cyanotic, Gage." Hank commanded from the sunlit crack above Gage.

Gage swam over to the limp boy and worked him on the mask until the teen began to actively cough and moan once more. Kelsey only need a boost, she had never quit breathing.

Johnny sucked in two fresh breaths for himself as he swam back the short distance over to Roy and set the dripping mask over his face. "Nap time's over, Pal. Wake up.." And he thumbed several shots of oxygen into Roy's lungs.

DeSoto immediately reawakened and shoved the mask away, thrashing his limbs in the water as consciousness rapidly returned to him.

Johnny ducked. "Hey, watch what you're doing!  
I'm right here. You're fine now. Here.. Do this yourself then.. Cap's gonna let us know when they're gonna blow the hatch real soon.."

"T-The victims?" Roy shook his head to clear out fogginess.

"They're fine. Keep sharing the wealth.  
I'm next after Bobby and Kelsey.." Johnny said twitching shivery gimme fingers at his partner and the mask to get him to pass it around fairly.

Roy was clear headed enough to realize an odd thing in that second voiced name. "Kelsey?  
Johnny, how did you find out our female victim's name? She didn't have any ID on her and she's never been awake enough to tell us."

"Imagine that.." Johnny deflected. "How's your breathing now?"

"Fine if I'm talking to you. Don't evade the issue.  
Why am I getting chills from the sound of your voice right now? What aren't you telling me?"  
DeSoto demanded.

Johnny took his turn off the spare O2 and fell uncharacteristically silent while he monitored both the girl and the teen's pulses in turn. For two passes of the O2,Gage didn't say anything. Then he asked one simple question. "Do you remember my best friend Drew the highway patrol officer?"

Roy's face paled from more than the cold. There wasn't any way he could not remember that man's death and the radio transmission that failed to arrive from Rampart with life saving treatment.

DeSoto simply met Johnny's eyes and nodded as his fingers reassessed the placement of the airway resting in Kelsey's throat and felt for the distension growing in her stomach. It wasn't bad enough to effect his ventilations on her.

Johnny's face grew old as he unloaded his emotional burden to his partner. Johnny's worry lines only became worse for the telling. "Well, this is Drew's wife, Roy, lying right here. And I don't know where her five year old daughter is. I hope to G*d she isn't in that crushed van down there. Cause if she is, she's dead."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Cap peers into a crack beneath his feet.

Photo: Johnny looking down, thoroughly soaked.

Photo: Roy and John treading water with a victim in a stokes.

Photo: Drew's wife Kelsey and their little girl with Gage kneeling and offering them comfort.

Photo: Roy peering into bright light soaked to the skin with water.

*  
From : "rosafleehart" Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Promise.. Date : Mon, 29 Sep 2003 17:23:57 -0000

Roy said. "Why didn't you tell me before when you first knew it was her?"

"I thought I could handle it, Roy, ok?" Johnny replied.

"Junior, sometimes..... I just wish you would let me in on things more." he said uncharacteristically defensive.

Gage countered, without thinking. "Look. I'm sorry, Roy, ok?"

Suddenly, Roy started to have a little trouble breathing and then Johnny knew something was wrong. "Hey you ok, Pally?" he asked, grabbing a hold of his jacket sleeve to get his attention.

Roy coughed. "I'll be fine. Must have swallowed the water when the tank fell. " he replied. "Right now we've got other things to be concerned with. How's the boy?"

Johnny answered. "He's holding his own right now. "

Roy tried hiding the fact, from Johnny, that his breathing was starting to get worse. :: I don't want to add a further burden to my partner's already high stress level.:: he thought to himself. So he tried to handle it. ::I know there isn't much that can be done until we're top side anyway.:: He just hoped it would wait before getting any worse.

--------------------------------------------------------------- After nearly two hours, the rescuers finally broke through to them.

The girl, Kelsey, was handed out first and a second paramedic crew took her over.

Then the boy, Bobby, was handed out and another medic team took over his care while the rescuers got Roy and Johnny out of the collapsed tank.

Just as Johnny was hoisted up, Roy got real bad. Quickly. ::I can't breathe! Hardly at all now.:: DeSoto panicked.

Just as Johnny looked down, Roy lost consciousness and started to sink into the contaminated water.

Johnny let go of the rescuers' rope and dove in after his partner. He grabbed him by the shirt collar and pulled him to the surface as quickly as possible.

They pulled him out. Then Johnny was, too, right behind him.

The other medics were busy so Johnny had to treat his partner on his own.

Roy was out cold and not breathing and that made Johnny go into instant paramedic mode. He quickly got in an intubation on 6 liters of 02 which got Roy breathing again. Then he got in an I.V. with Ringers using the open treatment privileges that had been given to them from the beginning by Brackett.

He took vitals and saw that Roy was doing better. Johnny contacted base and Brackett took it. "Rescue 51 to base. How do you read?"

Kel replied, "I read you loud and clear, 51. Go ahead with your transmission."

"We have a 34 year old male. He lost consciousness while trapped in a collapsed water tower. He stopped breathing. He has been intubated and is NOW breathing. We have him on an I.V. with Ringers wide open. He is still unconscious. Vitals are: B.P. 100/85, pulse is thready. Respirations are 30 and his lungs are congested. Also he has had some prior congestion due to water lung. " Gage said over the biophone.

"51, keep him intubated. Administer 30 milligrams of Talwin and transport a.s.a.p." Brackett ordered.

Johnny answered. "Ten four. Talwin. 30 milligrams and transport as soon as possible. We are ten minutes from your location. Also be advised, we have a hazmat situation in effect. "

"Ten four and in transit, get me a new set of vitals." Brackett said. "We'll take precautions here for you and your patient."

Gage nodded. "Ten four. 51 out."

Gage looked to Cap. "Cap, we need an ambulance in here now. "

"You got it, Johnny. " Hank answered and announced over the radio. "Battalion 14, This is HT 51. We need an ambulance by me. We have a code I ready for emergency transport."

"Ten four, HT 51. Ambulance is on the way in to you now. "

"Ten four."

Johnny looked up. "Cap, I'm going in with Roy. " he said, not beating around the bush, challenging.

To Gage's relief, Hank didn't bat an eye. "O.K., I'll see that the squad gets to the hospital."

"Thanks." Gage replied.

They loaded Roy up and Johnny got in with him.

Gage was in both partner and medic mode. He got a new set of vitals and relayed them to Rampart using his radio. "Rampart, this is squad 51."

"Go ahead, 51. " Kel acknowledged, toggling a switch.

Johnny shouted over the roaring sirens. "New vitals are : B.P. is 90/65. His pulse continues to be thready and weak. Breathing's at 26."

Kel frowned. "51, what is your ETA?"

Johnny answered. "We are three minutes out."

Dr. Brackett nodded. "Send me a strip."

"Ten four. This will be lead two." Johnny said quickly.

At the same moment, both Brackett and Johnny saw the same thing. Johnny reacted as a medic. He told the ambulance to pull over just as Brackett yelled over the radio. "51! We read V-fib. Defibrillate 400 watt seconds now!"

"Ten four." Johnny defibrillated Roy the first time.

There was no change.

On the second, still no change.

Johnny said as he went for a third time."Come on, Pally. Don't do this to me. Come on." he gasped. "D*mn it, Roy."

Finally Roy converted to sinus rhythm and his heart beat normally again. Johnny reported on the radio. "Converted! Times three. He's in sinus rhythm." he sighed.

"Ten four, 51 bring him on in." Kel grinned.

"Ten four, " Johnny answered. "OK. Let's go." Gage said to the ambulance driver by smacking the partition between them.

------------

As the ambulance arrived, Brackett and Dixie met it at the doors. They were shocked. They didn't know it was Roy down. The tension was over.

But then Johnny hit the floor suddenly in a blackout.

"I'll take Johnny..." Joe Early said quickly kneeling beside Gage to check his pulse.

"And I'll take Roy..." Brackett replied, grabbing hold of the blond paramedic's gurney with two orderlies.

Soon, they were both put into treatment rooms.

------------------------------------------------------------- After a few days, Johnny was released and he went to Roy's bedside. He hadn't regained consciousness yet.

::It's been six days.:: Gage thought morosely. Johnny was worried.

He said to Roy."O.K., Roy. It's time to wake up. Now everyone is worried about you, Pally. So come on." he said urgently. "Wake up for old Johnny, huh, Pally?"

All through that night, Johnny stayed at Roy's side, refusing to leave.

Joanne had gone home to rest at Johnny's insistence.

As the day broke, Johnny got up to stretch. He had been holding Roy's hand all night long. ::And I've been doing a lot of praying.:: he thought aloud, for his friend.

He turned suddenly when he heard a whisper of a voice say. "You look terrible, Junior."

Johnny leaned eagerly over Roy as he rang the room call button. "Hey, Pally. How are you feeling?"

Roy grinned slowly. "Weak. Tired."

Gage smiled quietly, "Yeah, I'd say so. You gave us a h*ll of a scare there, buddy."

Roy studied his sheets. "Sorry."

"Welllll....." Johnny teased. "That's ok. Just don't let it happen again, ok?"

Roy was checked and it was found that he truly WAS going to be o.k.

DeSoto finally talked Johnny into going home and getting some rest.

Roy was released three weeks later from the hospital.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- A month later, he was cleared to return to duty.

Johnny had put a welcome back party together and they were all enjoying it, when the tones went off .

As they climbed into the squad, Johnny said. "Nice to have you back, Pally."

"It's nice to BE back, Junior."

Johnny had missed that nick name over the time Roy had been gone. "Roy, I hope I never see you come that close to being lost again." he insisted. But just as fast, he put on a wry grin. "But then again, I most probably will 'cause that's the job we both have." he added with exasperation.

Roy agreed, nodding, as he drove. "We HAVE devoted our lives to saving others as ff/pm's." he said in apology. ------------------------------------------------------------------

No Photos attached.

************************************** From :"patti keiper" Subject : Second Thoughts.. Date : Wed, 01 Oct 2003 12:08:05 +0000 Gage made a face as he peered at the address on the scrap of paper he had gotten from Cap as they had taken off on their run. "Yeah,.. but that doesn't mean I have to like the fact that the people around me are continually at risk all the time.." he said with some real heat.

That surprised DeSoto and he glanced at Gage's face to be sure he saw the sharp anger mirroring there that had tinged Johnny voice. Roy bit down the joke that he had rising and stifled a smile.  
"You know we have a pact not to die in front of one another if we can possibly help it. Last month didn't count. The tower cheated when it gave no warning before dunking us into that chemical bath. Man, that hurt. My p*ss's still glowing at night." he complained.

Roy's planned crudeness worked.

It was Johnny's turn to glance over and a shadow of a crooked grin toyed with his face, but only for a moment. He didn't feel like explaining his real feelings on the discussion and once again, a vulnerability that was newly born in his eyes, stilled his lips into silence.

Roy concentrated half on the road, the rest on Johnny. "Hey.  
We can talk about it you know.."  
he offered in a quick toothy smile.  
"If we don't, Cap's bound to throw us all into a session with the CISM counselors. Don't be upset that you can't be there all the time to save the day like you'd rather do."

Johnny flared. "I don't need any critical incident stress management lackies crawling around my head! I'd rather have had it not to have happened at ALL." he snarled once again. And the roaring siren over their ears seemed to agree with him pointedly.

The ghost of a grin on Roy seeped away and he didn't say much of anything for a full minute, only watching the directions Johnny quietly indicated to him, showing them the way to their current rescue's location. But then DeSoto said. "Look at the bright side. I may be a lot poorer financially now for missing out on so much work but I've gotten in some real quality time with Joanne and the kids.  
Our third's really coming along. I felt the baby kick real hard last night..."

That was the wrong thing to say. Gage nearly levitated out of his seat and he angrily adjusted his loose helmet strap a little more snuggly under his chin. "Good.  
I'm happy for you.. Your family's safe and sound and everything's looking real nice and rosy for ya.." he said, saluting smartly in sarcasm.

Roy's mouth slacked open and he gripped the steering wheel a little tighter even as his jaw slid sideways in puzzlement.  
"Johnny, what's the matter? Wh- What's going on with you? I don't think I've ever seen you with so many ants in your pants before.."

Johnny huffed and thunked an elbow out the squad's windy window to serve as a prop for his scowling face.

Roy then figured it out.. "It's Kelsey Richards.  
Isn't it..?" The name elicted a bright spot of pain that Roy saw lance sharply across Johnny's features. ::Bingo...::

"What about her?" Johnny asked defensively.

Roy stuck out a pouting frown. "Well,..how's she doing? I heard she got home from the hospital ahead of me by five d--"

"She's fine.." Gage interrupted. "Kelsey's just fine.  
Somehow, she took no heart or lung damage from the freon like you had happen to you. She's home and everything's good and she calls me every night to help her get over the fact that her kid Amber didn't make it like she d--" his voice broke off, getting uncharacteristically choked up and muffled.

Now Roy understood everything plainly. "You're hung up really bad about this, aren't you?" he said softly. "I had almost forgotten about what you told me that day. About the five year old fatality you thought was in the van.. Was she?"

Johnny shook his head minutely in the negative. "Kelsey's daughter died outside the tower. Another company found her under the pile of freon tanks. Remember the ones we heard hissing when we first got that dizzy construction worker out?"

DeSoto nodded and Johnny rubbed his face.

"Then there wasn't anything you could've done to have prevented that now, could you?" Roy doctored.

Gage sighed and a tear ran a trail down the side of cheek that Roy couldn't see even as his face ironed up. "It wasn't my best friend's daughter that's been in my every waking thought since I found out that you were gonna make it." he said his tone trembling slightly as his anger evaporated into grief.  
"There was someone else down there that I should have known on the spot. A victim whom I should have tried a little harder to save.."

Roy turned another corner his partner pointed out to him and the tires of the squad squealed. "I don't understand, Johnny. Explain it to me.  
You told me weeks ago that those teens didn't have a chance except for Bobby the driver because the roof had caved in and pushed them all under the water."

Johnny's lips flattened into a thin line.  
"I know. I know.. Look, would you stop prying and let me just think a minute here!" he snapped. "I got a lot to tell you so just---"

Just like that,..Johnny returned to a horrific memory that had been relayed to him by Stoker the same day he had awakened in the shared hospital room with Roy at Rampart.

Johnny still remembered how chilled he felt under the blankets when he heard.....

-----------------------------------------------------------

......"You should have seen him, Johnny. He left the hospital on one of the ambulances to get to the scene the moment his instincts screamed at him. He knew, Johnny.. He knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that she had been there in the van.."..

The hospital gowned Gage tried to steady the ice glass and straw that Mike Stoker had been helping him sip without drinking from it. "What the h*ll are you talking about, Mike? Who knew whom in the van? My friend Drew's dead.  
And there was no one else around who knew Kelsey and her little girl, Amber, enough to worry about them."

"It's Doctor Morton, Gage. We found him crying over his sister's stokes after he had found her black tagged in the triage morgue tent along with the other teens who died in the van with her."

Johnny dropped his water glass...

------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh my G*d. I'm s- sorry, Johnny.. I- I didn't know.."  
DeSoto said as he sped the final few blocks towards their destination. "I saw all the blood in the water with us.. But I didn't know you had found someone else in that van besides Bobby who was still salvagable.."

Gage made a little noise of pain.  
" I guessed I freaked out Roy.. She WAS there. Right there in my arms.. And I just dropped her when I saw her facial and cranial injuries without even checking to see if she was still alive..."

"You were in shock, Johnny. We both were.  
A tower had just fallen on you and freon gas was doing its best to suffocate us all, too."

"We're talking about not trying harder with Morton's SISTER, Roy..." Johnny insisted in high agony. "I'm negligent! I'm most likely gonna be one of the clear ones to blame for leaving her to die down there..."

"You don't know that." Roy said equally loud as he drove. "You know what they tell us whenever we find a victim with obvious gray brain matter showing."

"You don't have to tell me.." Johnny said sharply.

"Well, I'm going to. In that medical situation,  
it's to be taken as an obvious sign of death from the classic signs list right along side rigor mortis and dependent lividity.."

"Roy, I could have done something MORE.  
I could have started breathing for her..."

"With crushing mouth and nose injuries?  
How?" Roy challenged.

"Well..."

"Even if you managed to get air into her lungs. There was no way you EVER could have started c.p.r effectively enough. You were treading water.."

"Stop it!" Gage said. "Just shut up Roy.  
You don't know what you're talking about.."

"Oh yes I do. I'm the one who taught you everything you know as a paramedic,  
remember?" DeSoto insisted, clenching his hands on the wheel he said glaring at his despondent partner.

"Look out!!" Gage shouted.

Roy barely swerved in time to avoid getting hit by a motorist who hadn't heard their sirens at a four way stop sign.

DeSoto thunked over the curb onto grass and their front tire ripped over a support stake at the foot of a corner telephone wire.  
It immediately blew out and halted the squad cold, throwing both paramedics foward, hard.

Roy and Johnny caught themselves on the dashboard as best as they could.

"You ok?" DeSoto gasped.

"Yeah, I was just about to ask you the same thing.."  
Johnny admitted, still gripping window frame and roof strut.

Both men started to shake with reaction from their near miss and a minute later,  
it took both of them to steady the radio mic as Roy thumbed it and said, "L.A. This is squad 51."

##Go ahead, 51.##

"L.A. We've been disabled mechanically avoiding a vehicular collision. We'll be unable to respond to our current rescue call.  
We are uninjured." he added quickly to keep Cap and the rest of the gang possibly listening on the office scanner, reassured.

##10 - 4, 51. Do you need roadside assistance?##

"Negative. My partner and I can handle it."

##Copy....Squad 51, cancelled. *Beep. beep. beep*  
Squad 8, in place of Squad 51. Possible heart attack. 309 Hunter's Place and Jackson Blvd.. 309 Hunter's...##

Roy and Johnny tuned out the rest of the radio transmission as they both slid out of the squad to sit on their truck's back landing board to steady their nerves and bodies while they took off their helmets.

Johnny was trembling violently. "I can't take any more surprises today, Roy. Even ones as fun as your welcome back party. My nerves are more than shot."

"I noticed.." Roy said without smiling.

Johnny buried his head into his hands and wiped away the salty wetness streaming there from his eyes and just rested for a few moments.

Roy watched his face in steady concern.  
"Wanna eat something? Your blood sugar's gotta be low. I know mine is after that."

"Yeah, I'll eat. But where? I don't know this neighbor beyond what I saw on the wall map to get to where we had to go for this call." Gage admitted.

"How about the cafeteria at Rampart..?"

Johnny startled and stopped rubbing his face. "Uh.h,...Dixie said Morton's working today and I don't think I wanna run into HIM just yet.  
I was only lucky that I never saw him all those times Joanne and I came to see you when you were still in your chemically induced coma."

"We gotta go there to resupply sometime.  
Most likely as soon as after our next call." Roy said getting up to check the condition of the squad beyond its shredded tire.

"I know.. I know. But I still have a lot of thinking to do.."

"Do you?" Roy asked seriously. "I just told you how it was for Morton's sister. And you. Don't you trust my judgement that there wasn't really anything that you could've done for her?"

"I trust ya. I trust ya.. I just don't know if I can trust myself anymore." Johnny said gloomily, tossing both his helmet and Roy's into the passenger seat while he broke out the squad's jack, wrench and spare tire from inside the stokes department.  
"Cause I can't really keep the promises I make.  
I promised Drew that I'd look after his wife and little girl and I didn't."

"That's a lie.. You kept Kelsey alive."

"No, YOU did. I had my hands full with Bobby and...." he rubbed his mouth with guilt. "...and with you.."

"I was dyspneic due to fumes. Kelsey was already safely airway secured. You had a right to worry about me first. I was your paramedic priority then, only one behind Bobby."

"No you weren't. She was unconscious."

"So was I ...later on. Quit hashing semantics. Don't deny how things happened because I know how they went .Cap told me everything when he came to visit me at Rampart."

That shut Johnny up and Roy saw a wrinkle on Gage's forehead ease. But Johnny's eyes stayed gray and suddenly full with conviction.  
"I'll let you know this, Roy. I promise that I'm never gonna let you or anyone else I know down ever again if I can help it."

"That's the spirit. A promise is good for the soul.."

"That's only if a promise can be kept, Roy." Johnny countered. "It's its own double edged sword sometimes."

"Like you learned with Kelsey and Amber?" DeSoto said gently.

Johnny stopped hauling away on the tire lugs where he knelt in the grass. "Yeah.." he said bitterly. "Like that.."

"Well, you made no such promise to Dr. Morton,  
my friend. So stop blaming yourself for something you couldn't have changed." DeSoto interjected quickly. "It was somebody else who brought that tower down and caused the accident. Not you. You were just a victim that time."

"It's never good for a paramedic to be a victim."  
Johnny said tightly.

"Exactly right. So just be a paramedic and everything will turn out right if it's in your power, like it always does."

"Like it used to do.."

"Like it STILL does, partner.." he firmly glared.  
"I'll let you know if you ever lose your edge. Remember, Brackett says you're one of the best." he chuckled. "And I'm keen on protecting that reputation because it reflects well on me. Next month's review and raise is depending on that. I'm also doing it because I've a lot of ground to catch up on with my bills and my FAMILY's bills.." he groaned.  
"So I'm gonna guarantee that fatter paycheck any way I can."

Instead of laughing, Gage frowned.  
"Yeah? Well what about my reputation in the eyes of Dr. Morton? I'd say I'm just about shot as a medic if he decides to blame his sister's death on me in front of the paramedic's review board."

DeSoto stayed silent, not knowing what to say.

But then, a few minutes later, as the morning warmth dried the sweat off their faces, DeSoto spoke up. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  
I'm sure that Brice, as head chair, would review any case he overhears fairly in concern with recertifying you if Morton should want an investigation done examining the actions you took that day.  
Craig is a walking rule book you know."

"And I'm a walking jobless man if I get a suit filed against me. How can I keep my personal promises then if I can't be a paramedic anymore?"

"Trust in your promises, Johnny. They're all you've got. " he said seriously. Then he laughed,  
adding. "Then trust your friends to know you better than you do. They'll never tell you any lies about how you really are."

Johnny finally harrumphed in his throat with a slight smile which admitted that he gave Roy a point for being right on that.

"Come on. This tire's all set. Let's get some food. Dixie says the tuna fish casserole's incredible. I'll vouch for it. I sure ate enough of it during my hospital stay.."

Photo : Brackett, Morton and Joe treating a woman in treatment 3.

Photo : The squad in a near collision.

Photo : Johnny view of squad day drive.

Photo : Firefighters, police and a body bag.

*  
From : "Katherine Bird" Subject : Indigestion.. Date : Thu, 02 Oct 2003 05:06:55 +0100

Roy had just paid for his lunch of pasta when Johnny crashed into the back of his partner with his own tray full of the same thing. Gage had to go through heroics in order to keep from spilling his milk and keeping his cherry jello from jiggling out of its pudding dish.

"Would you just cut that out already.."  
DeSoto complained. His tray had been uneffected by the impact since he was the bigger man in mass of the two and had absorbed all of it without ill effect.

"What?"

"Quit slinking around here as if you expect a firing squad to pop outta nowhere."

"I'm not slinking around.. I'm ..I'm..just keeping an eye out, that's all."

"Don't tell me, you don't want to run into Mike Morton.." he pegged in irritation in a half whisper so the surrounding hospital staff wouldn't overhear.  
He offered peace by pulling out a chair at a nearby table for Johnny first before grabbing and reversing another one for himself.  
"I thought we had settled all that."

"...Not directly...no. Look, Roy, I mean, he's bound to show up looking for me sometime.."

"How do you know? You haven't yet even talked to the man."

Gage began to gesture pointedly. "Can't we just ...sit over there?" he pleaded half heartedly.

"Where?" Roy said, irritated at the idea of moving again when his stomach was complaining so loudly.

Johnny pointed again and Roy looked over his shoulder to the table his partner wanted.

Roy frowned. "There's no sun over there.  
You wouldn't be able to see your plate well enough to eat from it if we ate over there. I'm fine right here. You can move if you like. Today,  
I'm gonna be part chameleon and soak up the daylight. Let's just say that tower's rubbed off a little too much on me. I suddenly find I really like open spaces." and he began to shovel it in as only a hungry fireman could.

"Roy, would you jus--" And Gage broke off when he saw Dixie and Brice headed their way. "Oh, no.  
He's bad enough.." But rather than looking like he was retreating, Johnny sat down next to Roy and nervously positioned his arms and posture to look like he wasn't nervous.. He failed miserably and Dixie McCall caught on right away.

"Oh, come on, Johnny. It's not that bad." Dixie grinned.  
"Mike won't bite your head off. I've been working on him these last few weeks sharing with him just what you had to go through during the incident where Angie Morton was killed.  
I even showed him your medical chart showing how low your PO2 levels were because of those freon fumes." she grinned.

"Dixie!" Gage said in mortification at that breach of confidentiality.  
Johnny made a hushing face, but Brice seemed to be oblivious.

Craig just offered Dixie a third chair at Johnny and Roy's table before he took the last one and began arranging his tray and silverware just so on the china blue formica table top. He even passed over the salt to the head ER nurse so she could season her salad.

Johnny was beginning to relax about Dixie's meddling admission when Craig Brice spouted off in surprise instant support. "No paramedic could have been expected to keep a clear head dealing with any rapid life or death decision making processes with the marked hypoxia you had during that crisis. I'll stand by what I read.." he said matter of factly.

Johnny nearly choked on his tuna. "What is this? Why is my medical chart suddenly everyone's common property around here." he whined, unconvincingly angry. "I thought there were rules to protect my privacy that way.."

Dixie held out a hand apologetically to Johnny and set a warm grip on his forearm. "I'm sorry, Johnny. But Dr. Brackett felt that that was the best way to defuse Mike from taking a legal course of action against you by spreading around just what you had to work with. "

The color drained from Gage's face. "He's been doing what?"

"Nothing official, Gage.." Brice said. "So far, it was just a meeting with Dr. Brackett, Morton and myself concerning competency.."

Johnny threw down his fork with a clatter and jumped from his seat. "That's it! I'm going to go talk ta Morton right now. This is really getting insane..."

"Wait a minute, Junior, where do you think you're going?" Roy asked.  
"Gage, hold on a short moment, before you take an action that you'll regret in the future." Brice suggested blandly.  
"Johnny.. pipe down everyone's gonna stare."  
Dixie hissed. They all said simultaneously.

It took all three of them to pull the distraught young paramedic back into his cafeteria seat.

"Shut up and eat." DeSoto said with finality,  
handing Johnny back his fork and pulling away the HT so Johnny couldn't leave.

"Don't think I can. I just lost my appetite."  
Johnny mumbled. He toyed with the food on his plate, pushing it around while watching the steamy curls from his lunch waft away in the breezy sunlight.

"Why don't you trust Dr. Brackett to manage Doctor Morton about all this? You're not to blame for what happened.." Dixie insisted.

"That's what I told him.." Roy agreed in exasperation.  
"Only my half witted partner here doesn't believe me."

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute.. Guys. Don't you think all of this should be between just Mike Morton and me?"

"And a pair of lawyers, Gage. Can't forget them."  
Brice piped up, trying to interject a bit of reality to the problem.

Johnny's face went even a paler shade of gray.

"Oh, Johnny. Knock it off. You did what you could.  
I heard the whole story from Hank Stanley when he was here to see you two back then. Now, why don't you just sit back and let Kel handle all this?  
It's his job to go to bat for his paramedics."  
Dixie moaned.

"And mine.." Craig piped up.

Somehow, Brice's admission didn't feel all that warm and fuzzy to Johnny Gage like it could have been. He just stuck magnet eyes on Craig and mumbled tongue tied comments of no import while he twisted his brain around the convolutions of his current nightmare conversation.

Finally, Gage said something the others could understand. "You mean, Brackett's cool about all this? That he'd know if I could be sued for incompetency over ..over.. Miss Morton's..?"

"He should know. He was handling your medical calls that day." Dixie said firmly. "You're just going to have to trust your higher-ups to know what's best for you in the long run to patch things between Morton and the courts before this whole thing blows up out of porportion."

"That's what I'm afraid of.." Johnny whispered,  
taking a bite of his suddenly cold food. "I'm not in control here anymore." he said in a way no one else heard.

While the others ate and moved happily onto other subjects, Johnny Gage suddenly felt like the loneliest man in the world.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Johnny was heading out the cafeteria doors to rejoin Roy in the squad, when he overheard the clump of nurses he usually targetted for-asking out-on-a-date practice, speaking in animated voices amongst themselves.

::That's what I can do.. Get a new date to cheer myself up!:: Johnny thought smiling to himself.

"Did you hear he's going to do it?" said one pixie like nursing student, to the others.

"Who's going to do what?" asked another.

Johnny started to head over to them wearing his best Johnny Gage suitor's smile, when the next sentence floating out to him from the entry way doors, made him flatten against a shadowy wall.

"Why Morton, silly. He's going after a paramedic who seriously let him down on a run."

A third nurse gasped, her breath going wide up in a whistle of shock. "No.  
I feel sorry for whoever that paramedic is. They're all so cute."

"Yeah,.. looks like we'll have one less working here by the end of the week."  
a third joked.

They melted away to their cars, going off shift while Johnny stood stunned in the corner.

::A lawsuit? Oh my G*d.::

He barely remembered getting into the squad with Roy.

Photo: Dix closeup in the cafeteria.

Photo: Brice and Roy laughing.

Photo: Johnny at Rampart looking bugged.

Photo: Johnny surrounded by nurses.

Photo: Morton at the station, looking all business.

*  
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 00:18:37 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeff Seltun" Subject: Rated PG for Graphic Content.. The Tiny Miracle

*Beep* Beep* Beep*.

"Here we go.." Gage said, just to fill the heavy void in his mind and heart.

##Station 51. Woman down. 911766 Lander's Way. 911766 Lander's Way. Cross street,  
Buena Vista Blvd. Time Out : 10: 46.##

"Looks like the engine's going to beat us there, Johnny." Roy said as he pulled into the drive of the hospital and turned right under the walkway to get to the freeway. "Hope it's a medical.  
Not a trauma. They don't have that much for gear.."

They were half way there when the radio crackled, truck to truck.  
##Engine 51 to Squad 51. We have a s-stabbing, with arterial bleeding. What's your ETA?##

Gage didn't miss the odd tension in his captain's voice. He immediately frowned. "Now why would Cap broadcast a medical update over the radio?" he said aloud.

"I don't know." Roy replied. "Let's just get there first. Sounds bad."  
He rounded a turn and then rubbed his lips in thought. "Lander's Way.  
Now why does that sound familiar to me?"

"Gotta be a business with a street address number that long." Gage concluded. "Turn left here." and Gage thumbed the radio mic and replied. "Engine 51. Our ETA is three minutes."

##10-4. Be advised we have two victims. Repeat two victims..## Again they both heard the odd note in Hank's voice even through the normal tinny din of the open frequency.

Then another odd occurance happened.  
They heard Cap calling out for another squad.

"Squad 8? They're farther away than us.  
What the h*ll?" Johnny wondered as he listened to Brice and Bellingham acknowledge the call.

"We'll know when we get there. Maybe it's that new rule of one critical per squad Brackett was talking about during the last meeting coming into effect a month early."  
Roy guessed.

"That's right. I remember that. It was Brackett and Brice's idea." Gage replied. "And I know Cap's good with delegating tasks when he's got his hands full. Even for the medical stuff."

"They've got two O2 tanks." Roy agreed.  
"Those'll last well for them until we get there with ours."

Johnny glanced at his watch and scribbled a note in his book. "T-minus two minutes from arrival.."

Roy stepped on the accelerator.

-  
Marco was getting sick behind a parked car a short distance away.

Chet's complexion was faring little better. Kelly looked up from the dressing he held over the woman's swollen belly and away from the movement he was seeing there. "What should I do, Cap? I don't want to tip her over onto her side to deal with that nausea or this fluid'll gush out and expose it more.." he said softly, with high stress.

Cap continued to whisper reassurances to the half conscious woman on the ground.  
"Easy.. It's ok. Just keep breathing this in.  
The rescue squad IS on its way here." he said, holding a passive demand valve over her face trying to ease the oxygen debt she was feeling due to her massive hemorrhaging. ::I sure hope it's Brice who gets here first:  
"Chet. Just keep her on her back. I got the suction here if she gets ill, ok, pal?  
Just keep pressure around that wound without pressing down too much. Just apply dressings enough to slow the bleeding. We have to keep any more contamination from getting inside of her abdomen there."

"Where's my husband?" she moaned.  
"I want to see him... Oh...hHHh."

"Don't talk right now. Please, just keep still."  
Cap soothed, then he looked up with a tight mouth. "Stoker! Any sign of her assailant? There's more blood over here possibly from a second person, by Marco. On second thought, never mind. Go check on Lopez and see how he's doing. We need help here. She's waking up."

"The thief's gone, Cap. I just talked to a witness over here who said he ran to the north with her purse. He must have mugged her when she came out of the grocery store." Mike replied.

Hank nodded in agreement. "Probably because she was pregnant. Go handle Marco then get back here with more dressings. Also, we can at least set up a burn sheet to get her off the ground.  
Get a backboard and c-collar while you're at it. We can start immobilizing her, too, after we cut these clothes off. But first, get her covered up. There are too many gawkers gathering here."

The sight of the engine and four firefighters was indeed drawing a crowd from the shopping mart and a coffee shop from across the street. There was as yet, no P.D. for crowd control. Hank got on his HT. "Squad Eight, Engine 51. What's your ETA?"

## Four minutes.##

"10-4, Squad Eight. Our victim's regaining some consciousness but is developing complications."

##Understood. We're increasing our speed.## came Brice's cool reply.

Cap wished he could tell his arriving people more but didn't want to run the risk for safety reasons. ::It's bad enough as it is..::

A choking sound drew Hank's attention downwards. "Maam?!" he shouted. "Can you hear me?" The woman's stomach began to heave as she tried to quell sudden rising bile.

It caused some amber amniotic fluid to run from the gaping stab wound Chet was managing. "Easy.. easy!" Kelly urged. "Don't move down 'll hurt yourself further.."

Hank saw the woman's eyes roll back into her head as shock finally stole away her consciousness. He tipped back her head and looked into her mouth with practiced cross scissor fingers. Quickly, he suction wanded out some welling emesis he found there from the back of her throat until the choking sounds were gone.

When he looked up, he saw all four of his men around him over the woman.  
::Good going. Now we'll get things done.::

Cap bent low to listen for sounds of respirations. "She's still breathing.  
Marco, get a resp rate after you're through strapping her onto that long board. Stoker. Get another sheet over her as soon as he's through. Her pulse's weakening. It's 130." he said, keeping one monitoring finger on a deeply sunk in carotid artery.

"Cap, I don't know about this." Chet said from where he was kneeling with his hold around the stab wound. "There's a lot of air getting in around the baby. I'm getting real worried here that I'm not doing enough."

"Just hang on, pal. As long as she doesn't lose any more amniotic fluid,  
we're fine. The baby'll share the O2 she's getting, through the umbilical cord." And he stepped up his care, starting to actively ventilate the woman when her breathing grew too shallow for his liking.

::Come on, Johnny, Roy. Get the lead out.:: Chet willed mentally. ::She's one we can't lose..::

Cap looked up to see an arrowing squad flying towards them from the east. It wasn't squad 8. ::Uh oh. Didn't want that to happen:  
"Stoker get set. Watch Roy carefully when he gets here. And keep him away from me. Gage's the only one allowed to handle her." he said, keeping up his vents on Joanne DeSoto.

"Regulations?" Marco asked.

Cap nodded his head.

All three were watching when Roy's horrid cry of recognition exploded from his lips. Mike Stoker intercepted DeSoto's desperate charge to get near his wife and unborn child. "Joanne!"

Gage almost dropped the gear boxes and O2 he was carrying. "What?!"  
He ran by Stoker. "Don't you let go of him.." he ordered. "No matter what he does or says. Brice and Bellingham will be here long before I get in over my head."

Mike had brought Roy to his knees to keep him from getting into his crewmates'  
way. He kept talking to DeSoto, telling him what was wrong and what they had found on her.

"Joanne? Stabbed in the abdomen? The baby!!" Roy panicked. "I gotta get over there."

"DeSoto. Stay put!" Cap snapped.  
"Or it's your job, pal. Understood?"  
he said more softly, in sympathy.

Roy nodded reluctantly, but finally he stopped struggling with Stoker. He tried to content himself with trying to see over the sheets to where Johnny, Chet,  
Marco and Cap were crouched. He could barely make out the slight rise and fall of Joanne's chest in between the breaths Cap was giving her.

At a glance from Gage, Hank reported, "She got sick once. And I already listened.  
Nothing got into her chest. It's clear."

Gage sighed in relief. ::One hurdle down. Let's see how far we get with the rest of things.:: Johnny was already sweeping over Joanne's body in a rapid assessment. "Only that one stab wound?" he demanded of Kelly.

"Yeah, there's no exit wound. Johnny,...hurry. It's coming out.." Chet said in a tight whisper. "So's all the fluid bath."

"What?" Gage leaned in closer,  
quickly pulling on a pair of sterile latex gloves from an obstetrical trauma kit. He nodded for Marco to lift the sheet a little higher and to place a penlight into his mouth so Johnny could shine it into the dark wound that way.

He could see Roy and Joanne's third unborn child floating silently, without independent movement, deep within,  
with his naked eye. ::Oh, my g*d. Please be alive. Please. Please..:: he begged mentally, and he reached out carefully to a limb he saw just beneath the surface of inner skin surrounding the torn uterus. A tiny hand tightly gripped his finger in reflex to his stroking of its palm instantly.

Johnny's eyes teared up in a relieving surge of glad discovery. "The baby's alive, Roy. Looks like the knife didn't get down that far. I'm not seeing any bright arterial blood in here."

Roy wilted in a relieved father's release and Stoker let him go. "Th- Thank you."  
he said glancing up. Bright tears had filled his eyes. "How's she doing, Johnny?"

Johnny freed the tiny hand from his index finger and covered it with a damp sterile saline gauze pad carefully.  
"Chet. This doesn't come off. Got it?"

"Clear as anything."

Johnny addressed his distraught partner.  
"She's fine, Roy. I got pulses down to the brachial level on both arms and good bilateral femoral pulses. Looks like the knife didn't hit any major organs either. I'm not smelling any bowel. Just the anterior superior uterus here seems effected in the central umbilical laceration's only about four inches long but it's penetrating clear through to the womb obliquely."

He glanced lower and didn't find any bloody show further down. "The birth canal's intact, Roy. Thing's are looking real good." he sighed out loud. "All her trauma seems to be extremely localized."

He peeled off his fluid stained gloves and got out a blood pressure cuff.  
"Ok, Chet. The bleeding's mostly stopped.  
Your job is to make sure the baby doesn't poke through again, ok? Put on this second pair of gloves and maintain a firm barrier over the wound."  
"I'm no nurse, Johnny. I don't want to hurt the baby." Kelly frowned.

"You won't, the baby'll move back away from you shortly. It's not uncommon for free movement this late along, during a second trimester."

Roy was nodding his head in agreement despite his numbing emotional fog. He nodded every step of the way, too, during Johnny's biophone call to Rampart, at every satisfactory aspect of his partner's examination results and vital signs report.

"....Rampart, it appears she's lost about 800 cc's of blood to the outside and about......" he added, lifting up the cut away garments forgotten and shoved into a heap behind Chet, to look more closely for a better estimate of volume. "...200 cc's of amniotic fluid from what I'm seeing here." he said.

Kel's firm no nonsense voice filled the air.  
"51, start two I.V.'s Normal Saline and run wide open until her B.P. comes up. Under no circumstances are you to pack the wound. I'd rather it drain freely. We'll handle any major leakage when she arrives and gets sent into surgery. Use no pain medications on the victim, at all. It might further depress the baby's vital signs. What are they, 51?"

Gage read his notes. "Fetal pulse is 180 via stethoscope auscultation. Mother's respiratory rate, assisted, is 22 on 16 liters of O2."

"Good enough. Watch for fetal protrusions such as free limbs or the umbilical cord in transit. Under no circumstances are you to push any such extrusion back into the uterus. Just maintain space around the area manually to keep good circulation going in the part."

"10-4, Rampart. So far, just an arm's been visible, that only submerged, and a hand,  
briefly."

Over the radio, Dr. Morton, who had been walking by, commented. "No doubt that's how Gage found out the baby was still alive. The grasping reflex.."

"No doubt.." Kel agreed.

Brackett re-thumbed the talk button. "Keep her warm, keep her legs elevated and get her and baby in here a.s.a.p. Tell the ambulance driver to avoid potholes if at all possible. Oh, and don't forget to apply an occlusive dressing over the wound to slow the amniotic fluid loss you're experiencing. That's irreplaceable at this stage of the game."

"10-4, Rampart. Treat for shock.  
and use an air tight dressing."

Right then, Squad Eight came tearing around a corner, screeching efficiently to a halt and Brice and Bellingham got out. "Rampart,  
an additional squad has arrived to help me keep her and her wound stable.  
Our ETA is approximately fifteen minutes. The Mayfair's here."  
Gage added when a second set of sirens grew in rising pitch, from the distance.

Roy was finally allowed to sit by Joanne's head, slightly to one side so he didn't get in the way of the oxygen being delivered to his still wife and very active baby. Already, the shock he experienced when he first got to the scene, was lifting.  
"I don't suppose you saw the baby's gender over there." Roy quipped, trying to smile and he gently caressed Joanne's pale face around Cap's jaw gripping glove.

Johnny shook his head. "Sorry about that.  
Your baby decided to not cooperate in that way, Pally. Relax.. They're both in good hands. Mine. I promised you that I'd be here."

"And you are.." Brice said, kneeling, as he snatched Johnny's notepad from his hands to read what Gage had written down.

His speculative eye cast over Joanne once and his head bobbed in satisfaction over the progress of her course of treatment thus far. Craig waved over the ambulance attendants. "We're ready here. Looks like everything's set and good to go."

Photo: Johnny and Roy headed for the squad through the ER doors.

Photo: Joanne DeSoto in close up.

Photo: An extra-uterus fetal hand gripping a gloved finger.

*  
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 00:52:00 -0700 From: "Sam Iam" Subject: Bull in a China Shop..

"Hey..." Dixie gently woke her two favorite paramedics where they slumped in their seats outside the surgical family waiting room.

Roy and Johnny both sat up, rubbing sleepers out of their eyes quickly and they both coughed to get their voices back from the depths of slumber.

"It's over. The surgery was a success. Dr.  
Brackett managed to seal up your wife's womb without losing any more amniotic fluid.  
Joanne's just been extubated and is resting comfortably. So's the baby on the sonograms,  
Joe says. And there's a one hundred percent chance she'll be able to carry your baby all the way to full term for a normal delivery."

"When can I see her, Dix?" Roy asked.

"Oh, in about an hour or so. By then,  
she'll be awake enough for visits.."  
McCall grinned. "I gotta go. My shift's up."

"See ya Dixie..And, thanks for everything." DeSoto said after her as she padded quietly down the hall towards the elevators in the semi darkness of the nighttime hospital wing.

"Say, maybe this's is gonna fix everything." Gage said softly.

"What's gonna fix what?" Roy croaked groggily.

"This whole rescue and how Morton feels about me being the one who headed it. He can't possibly hold malice towards me now."

"Oh, that again?" Roy said rubbing tired eyes as he almost began drifting off to sleep right where he was in his waiting room chair.

"Maybe if he sees how well I handled Joanne and the baby on paper.." he paused.  
"With you, of course.. that he'll have no desire to press charges about how I handled his sister that day. He was there in the room with Brackett for this one. I know. I heard him."

"Who knows what that man thinks.  
I don't think anyone around Rampart can say much about him personally."  
Roy admitted. "So how can you predict how he'll react with any certainty?"

"Yeah, guess you're right.." Gage said, sinking into a depression once again that outshown the joy he felt meeting Roy's unborn son or daughter peeking out of the womb.

He thought again about what he had overheard from the student nurses on his way out the ER doors the day before.  
::Man.. Maybe I SHOULD bough out while I still have my pride left. I can't take this anymore. Gonna have to do something about that before I'm embarrassed publicly before everyone in a courtroom.::

Somewhere halfway to home, Johnny Gage made his final decision.

-  
It was the next day after a harrowing fire call, at the resupplying station.

"Gage, I wanna talk to you."

"About what..?" Johnny said,  
stiffening up at Morton's approach.  
::Here it comes, the ultimatum.::

"About missing critical vital signs on a patient that we both took care of together."

"On who?" Johnny blinked in surprise.

"Baby DeSoto."

"I didn't miss any vitals signs on the baby."  
he said fading from neutral into a tone which carried a tinge of irritation.

"This here says you did. There's a blank space glaring out at me. Caused me and my receptionist a few headaches transcribing my ER report this morning."

"Give me that.." Johnny said, snatching up the run sheet xerox from Mike's hands and reading where the young doctor was pointing.

"I did take a fetal pulse. Apically.."  
Gage insisted. "I got a rate of 180."

"Where? I don't see any notation about it on Joanne's run sheet.  
See? It isn't anywhere on here."

Johnny just gaped like a fish..

".. I'm right and you know it." Morton said cooly, his less than stellar bedside manner showing.

"No , I'm right!" Johnny insisted.  
"This is a xerox, Dr. Morton. And I just didn't press my pen down hard enough. It's there. I can see the ink furrows plainly."

Kel Brackett finally decided to get into the fray. "Maybe this isn't a case of who was right you two? Joanne's fine.  
The baby's fine. So why are you both squabbling over the details?  
You both did a fantastic job both in the field and in the treatment room yesterday." Kel insisted, grumbling stonily. But his comment fell on two sets of deaf ears.

Johnny and Morton were still glaring at each other like two caged lions.

Kel smiled as he walked away from the base station, shaking his head ruefully. He would let his two favorite ex-student proteges, work it out for themselves.

"I did an absolutely spectacular fetal stabilization out there. And you know it. You make me feel as if I'm being incompetent or something here."

"Maybe I am.." Morton said, not at Johnny, but inwardly, to himself.

"Why?" Johnny asked sharply, taking that comment's meaning entirely the wrong way.

"I don't know." Morton shrugged,  
still thinking to himself and only half listening.

Johnny was still fuming and defensive.  
"Then why don't you just haul me off to court and we'll square this whole issue away once and for all.."

"Huh? Oh, that. I don't have the money right now to pursue any charges against you, Gage."

"Now Morton, Look..." Johnny said very hushed, fearing the worst.

"And I wouldn't do such a petty thing anyway because it wouldn't be justified in the slightest to even attempt it."

Johnny's head immediately lifted.  
"What?"

"I'm not blaming you for my sister's death,  
Fireman Gage. But I AM still a little jumpy when it comes to handling rescue calls involving any teen aged girls who are near the age Angie was. Something me and the counselors haven't been able to figure out yet. That's why I got a little tight with you earlier, about how you assessed the baby, over the biocom."

"You mean.."

Morton held up silencing fingers, just as the hospital receptionist summoned his name over the intercom pager and gave a where-to-report-next location.

Mike refocused on a tense paramedic face. "That's right, Gage. I never went to a courthouse to file a lawsuit. That would've been stupid. I finally summoned up enough courage to read Angie's final autopsy report. She never had a chance at surviving that accident, Johnny.  
There was nothing humanly possible that you could've done. Excuse me,  
I have a lot of work to do right now.  
Can we talk about all this later?"

Mutely, Johnny nodded.

Half a second later, Dr. Morton wandered down the hall to the nurses' station phone to answer his page.

--------------------------------------------------

Photo : Dixie making an appearance for Roy and John in the nurses lounge.

Photo: Morton squaring off with a wary Gage.

Photo: Roy eyeing something intently in closeup.

*  
From : "Cassidy Meyers" Subject :The Final Post.. (No pun intended) Heh...:) Date : Thu, 02 Oct 2003 12:20:17 +0400 Johnny Gage rushed out of the hospital rest room, searching for his bored,  
wandering partner. "There you are! Roy! I did something really stupid."

"What? Did you get dressed again without a spare set of shoelaces handy?"  
Roy smirked. "Don't tell me, you broke yet another pair." Roy said sipping his coffee by the entry way doors leading out to the ambulance ramp.

"No, you gotta listen. I wrote a letter to headquarters and I mailed it without even thinking straight."

Roy tipped his head in a sinking suspicion,  
but out loud he asked. "What kind of letter?"

"The kind no one ever wants to write.."

"You didn't."

"Yes, I did."

"Why didn't you tell me you did something so stupid."

"Thought I just told ya, pal."

Roy grimaced, and looked at his watch.  
"Oh, Johnny..." he whined. "Which mail box?"

"The one by home.."

"Uh, oh.."

"Uh, oh what?"

"The postal truck picks up all deliveries in your neighborhood at eight o'clock."

"What time is it now? Maybe I got time to drive down there and--"

"Can you drive faster than a hundred miles an hour?" DeSoto squinted as he noted what time it read on his wrist watch.

"Oh, no.."

"Oh, yes. We got twenty minutes to intercept that letter." Roy's face fell.  
"Why'd ya do it partner? I thought we were friends."

"Roy, would you cut that out. I didn't mean it."

"Oh really. Tell that to headquarters when they open up the envelope." Somberly,  
he stuck out his hand. "It's been nice knowing ya. By noon, I'm afraid you're out of a job. You know how McConnike feels about quitters."

Johnny Gage suddenly snapped his fingers in the midst of a great idea.

"Roy, I think I figured a way outta this.  
Bear with me." And he snatched the HT out of his partner's hand.

-------------------------------------------------

Roy sat in the seat of the squad with his driver's door open, looking like the proverbial speak no evil monkey.

All the medical gear from the stow was conveniently arranged around the mail box in a neat ring. Johnny even had out the jaws of life.

It had been bad enough roaring down the freeway with lights and siren on for no good reason at all. Luckily, they had never run into another called out station while they were doing it.

Johnny tried to look nonchalant as E 51 pulled up with the rest of the gang Code Three. "What's the problem, Gage? " Hank said stepping out of the cab before the Ward was even curbside.  
"Sam was a little light on details for this one. All we got was 'Unknown Type Rescue" with your squad call sign as the originator.."

"Uhhh.." Roy stuttered.

"Roy, Just shush.. I'll explain it.."  
Johnny said and he bravely stepped forward to provide some protection for his partner.

"Well, uh,," Johnny cleared his throat nervously. "You see, Cap, it's like this. I sorta kinda wrote a stupid letter this morning before I came to work. One that I kinda regret.."

Hank Stanley caught on immediately and dropped his head with an irritated grimace that soon, rapidly, became a snarl as comprehension dawned.  
"Don't say anything more, Gage.  
Oh my word...L*rd all mighty in Heaven..!"

He set his hands on his hips and counted to ten..

"Cap,.. I.."

Hank held up a hand while the gang gathered around him from the engine's cab for orders. Then they noticed Hank silencing Gage with his trademark scathing nonverbal captain's gesture.

Slowly, his face turned a bright scarlet.  
Hank took in a deep breath and ...then he let loose.."We just wasted tax payers' gasoline dollars to come all the way out here to high tech rescue a stupid resignation letter?!" Hank boomed.

"Uh..." Johnny peeped. "Cap, the postman's gonna be here any second."  
he insisted lamely.

"I don't believe this! Of all your crazy lame brained schemes.. this one certainly takes the cake, Gage."

"Yeah, but isn't it noble?" Chet piped up, sudden admiration's stars in his eyes at Johnny's cack handed way of getting out of a rough spot.

Cap's face just turned a darker shade of red.

"Breathe, Cap." Marco insisted from somewhere out of range.

DeSoto and Gage just glared at Lopez..

"We're saving my partner's career here." Roy dropped into the boiling silence between them all.

"Say,,," said Chet, scenting an opportunity to get even in the years long Gage/Kelly one upmanship game. "Cap,..just think of how many favors you can glean off him for this."

Hank's glower faded away into a calculating speculation. "Ahh. That's right. I get to pull some serious rank AND discipline here.  
Let's see, well, latrine duty for sixty days, kitchen chow and dish detail until Christmas.."  
he said ticking off two fingers on his glove.

"Until Christmas?!" Gage sputtered, then immediately hushed up sheepishly.

"That's exactly right. Protest further and I'll double it.."

Gage was a mouse. A mute one.

Then they all heard responding sirens from an approaching police car.

"Uh oh,'' Cap trickled.  
"Quick! Pretend like your arm's stuck, Chet."  
Johnny shouted out to the back of the engine.

"Do what the man says Kelly and be quick about it.." Hank re-enforced.

"What, Cap?" Chet said as he huffed over with the equipment they needed.

"You heard me.." Cap hissed as the squad car squealed to a halt angled a forty five to the engine to deflect traffic away from it.

"Hurry up, Chet. We gotta make this look good." Marco quipped.

"We're going to be destroying government property here, Kelly." Cap clarified, looking around self consciously at the curious passersby drawn in by the sight of the flashy engine and squad in front of the bank.

"We need an excuse." Stoker said when Kelly still didn't yet catch on. "Bury an arm now, Chet. "

"And moan a little.. cause here comes Vince to guard the loose mail that'll result from our steel splitting surgery.." Roy grinned.

"Oh,,,geez.." and the lightbulb finally clicked on.. "Right, Gage.. " Chet stuck his arm into the box ."Ohh,, I don't feel so good."

John smacked Kelly subtly on the arm for overreacting a little too much.  
"Hi Vince..." he greeted brightly.

"What's the problem here, boys..?"

"Chet's stuck. Thought we had a puppy fallen down a mail box, Vince. Only dork head over here couldn't wait for the key."

"Is that a fact?" Vince leaned over and planted an ear against the post box and listened. "I don't hear anything."

"The little bugger got away..." Chet protested admirably. "He WAS here.  
Look.." and he pointed down to a convenient pile of doggy doo doo steaming on a curb near where they were standing. "He crawled right up my arm like a cat getting out. He even clawed my face.. See?" And he pointed to a lac he got from a shooting cinder the night before.

"Hmm. Ok, boys.. I'll authorize a sawing.." Vince finally agreed.  
"Just... try to keep the public's mail intact while you're doing it, all right?"

The K-12 flower petalled the mail box in less than twenty seconds under Stoker's extraordinary extrication skills.

Gage subtly kicked the letter he recognized as his into the sewer sunk into the street.

::Problem solved..:: he grinned in final relief.  
::This nightmare, is over..::

FIN

-------------------------------------------

Photo : Roy and John laughing at Rampart.

Photo : Cap and Chet highly amused outside.

Photo : A very serious Johnny and Vince.

Photo: A yellow street corner mail box.

Photo : A hand delivering a letter to a mailbox.

Photo: A very smug satisfied, smiling Johnny.

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